Ghosts Of Mars Was Originally A Snake Plissken Sequel – Rumor Explained

John Carpenter’s Ghosts Of Mars is fronted by Ice Cube’s Snake Plissken-esque prisoner, but was it originally intended to be Escape From Mars?

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It’s become something of an accepted fact that John Carpenter’s Ghosts Of Mars started life as a third Snake Plissken adventure, but is that actually true? Ghosts Of Mars was part of a trio of big-budget movies to explore the red planet around the start of the millennium. The other two were Brian De Palma’s Mission To Mars and the Val Kilmer fronted dud Red Planet, though Ghosts Of Mars is the most purely enjoyable of the bunch.

Ghosts Of Mars arrived in cinemas in 2001 and saw a group of cops teaming up with Ice Cube’s criminal on a terraformed Mars to battle miners possessed by Martians spirits. The movie was something of a cinematic mixtape of Carpenter’s past work, including Assault On Precinct 13, The Fog and The Thing. Despite some good reviews, including one from the late, great Roger Ebert, the film received a mostly lukewarm response and underperformed. Star Ice Cube was so disappointed by the film he refused to promote it and has since cited it as his worst movie, and one he only took for the chance to work with John Carpenter.

Ghosts Of Mars is definitely a film with its charms, however, including being Jason Statham’s action debut and a rocking music score. Since the movie’s release, rumors have stated it started life as Escape From Mars, which would have featured Kurt Russell’s Snake Plissken in place of Cube’s Desolation Williams. It’s certainly easy to see the links between the two – they both wear black sleeveless t-shirts and themed camouflage pants – and the rumor goes further, suggesting the failure of 1996’s Escape From L.A. led Carpenter to rework the script into an original concept.

This Ghosts Of Mars rumor has become something of a fact among followers of Carpenter, though there’s no actual quote from the director or anyone else involved with the movie stating this was the case. It appears some are confusing the proposed third Snake Plissken movie Escape From Earth, which didn’t ultimately happen, with Escape From Mars. Again, it’s easy to see the similarities between Snake and Desolation, but the same could be said of Assault On Precinct 13’s Napoleon Wilson (Darwin Joston) or Roddy Piper’s Nada from They Live.

In short, there is no evidence Ghosts Of Mars started life as another Snake Plissken adventure and it’s almost certainly a rumor. The last word on the topic should go to the movie’s producer and John Carpenter’s wife Sandy King Carpenter, who responded with a simple “No” to a fan asking the same question on Twitter. While it might have been fun to see Kurt Russell’s Snake fighting Martian ghosts, it appears that was never the plan.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/ghosts-mars-movie-snake-plissken-sequel-escape-rumor/