Why Kurt Russell Had No Interest In Reading Poseidon's Script
Hey, do you remember "Poseidon"? The 2006 action pic from director Wolfgang Petersen is a remake of the 1972 disaster epic "The Poseidon Adventure," as well as an adaptation of Paul Gallico's 1969 "The Poseidon Adventure" novel. The story focuses on a cruise ship that gets hit by a tidal wave and flips upside down. The survivors have to then claw their way to the bottom of the ship, which is now the top. Lots of characters die horribly along the way. It's fun for the whole family!
The star-studded remake cast includes Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, Richard Dreyfuss, and the late, great Andre Braugher. Russell is probably the biggest name of the bunch, and the actor plays Robert Ramsey, a character who is both an ex-firefighter and the former Mayor of New York City. His history allows him to sort of take command of the situation, although he's really mostly concerned with protecting his daughter (played by Emmy Rossum).
In an amusing interview with Entertainment Weekly, Russell was honest about why he signed on to co-star in "Poseidon," and as it turns out, he didn't even really want to read the script.
Kurt Russell wanted to work with Wolfgang Petersen
"My agent called me up and said, 'Wolfgang Petersen... 'Poseidon'... read the script and let's talk,'" Russell explained. However, he didn't immediately read it. "I sort of felt I didn't need to read it, to be honest," Russell admitted. "I wasn't really that interested in reading it."
Russell then recalled signing on to "Vanilla Sky," the trippy Cameron Crowe movie starring Tom Cruise. "I said, 'Yeah, I want to work with those guys,'" Russell explained. "And [my agent] said, 'Well, do you want to read the script first?' And I said, 'No, I don't care if it's one line or a hundred lines, if they kill seven people or what. It doesn't make any difference. I want to work with those people, I think they'd be fun to work with.'"
As it turns out, Russell had kind of the same opinion about working with "Poseidon' director Wolfgang Petersen, whose other credits include "Das Boot," "The NeverEnding Story," "In the Line of Fire," "Outbreak," "Air Force One," "The Perfect Storm," and "Troy."
"I felt a little bit that way about Wolfgang," Russell said, and then he got brutally honest: "And then my agent went through the process of just bleeding them dry for as much money as he could possibly get. [Laughs]" You can almost hear Russell laughing that great laugh of his at the end of that sentence. So there you have it: Kurt Russell wanted to work with Wolfgang Petersen, and he also wanted some money.