Bryan Cranston for the remake
Wouldn't that be a perfect casting?
shareI don't think he would be perfect anymore because of Breaking Bad. He now comes across like a badass from the show. Paul Kersey is supposed to start out as a very average man. Cranston, as great as he was in Breaking Bad, no longer has that average man quality. Personally, I think an actor who has never been in an action film, or someone that people don't associate with violence would be better so that you could watch him transform from "average man" to vigilante.
sharePrecisely the reason why they initially proposed Jack Lemmon when the original Death Wish was in pre-production. He had that non-threatening, mild-mannered, middle-class suburban dad quality that was perfect for making a character arc to murderous, obsessive vigilante.
Bronson was great and a legend, but Brian Garfield, author of Death Wish, was right about him being miscast. He just looked too thuggish and tough from the start, kind of like Jack Nicholson in The Shining: from his first appearance you know he's going to get crazy.