Our favorite archetypal tough guy Kurt Russell goes from Disney superdad in Sky High to check-collector for a big Warner Bros. remake.  The guy who saved the President, Antarctica and Little China has joined the 21st century version of the 1972 disaster flick The Poseidon Adventure, which gilled helmer Wolfgang Petersen is directing.

As with the original, the update takes place on a luxury ship that gets overturned by a tidal wave, forcing the trapped survivors to trudge across ceilings and reach the boat’s bottom (which is the top, see?).  Russell plays a former firefighter (which will no doubt come in handy on several occasions, although I hope he’s a little better at it than the end of Backdraft) in what I assume is the equivalent of Gene Hackman’s de facto leader from the first film. 

Joining Russell in the quest for surface breaching are The Phantom of the Opera sweetie Emmy Rossum as his daughter, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre meat Mike Vogel as her beau.  Richard Dreyfuss, who I could’ve sworn got all cranky and retired from acting a few years back, plays a recently jilted gay man, which should supply more unintentional amusement/annoyance than Shelley Winters could ever provide.  Andre Braugher is set to play the captain, so you can probably guess his fate, and more waterlogged B-level victims should be announced shortly.

Petersen’s fresh version of the Paul Gallico novel comes from writers Akiva Goldsman and Mark Protosevich, whose great adaptation of Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend is somehow still unproduced.

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