Kurt Russell is having a bit of a moment.

Last year he stole scene after scene in Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, and next year he'll officially join the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a major role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Before that, though, he stars as a gutsy installation manager in this month's excellent Deepwater Horizon, based on the real-life explosion that led to the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Eleven heroic men and women died due to that explosion, and Russell -- along with Mark Wahlberg, Gina Rodriguez and director Peter Berg -- are among those tasked with bringing their story to the big screen.

But what's next for Russell? In a wide-ranging interview that covered everything from The Thing to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 to the future of storytelling, Fandango spoke to the veteran actor about the current landscape of remakes, sequels and reboots, among them his own 1986 cult hit Big Trouble in Little China.

Check out part one of our interview below, then stay tuned for more on his pivotal role in Deepwater Horizon as we inch closer to its September 30 release. 

Fandango: Let's talk about the roles you’re taking on now. What kind of guys are you looking to play?

Kurt Russell: I’m the same as always. I read a script and the character they want me to play. Look, there are a lot of reasons to go to work. When you make a living as an actor, like any other job there are a million reasons to go do your job. For me it comes down to two things: story and character.

Fandango: They’re remaking some of your classic roles now…

Russell: Well they talk about it. They talk about it. I haven’t seen any of them yet, but they talk about it.

Fandango: You could still play some of these guys, though, like Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Little China. Do you ever petition to be considered for something like the Big Trouble remake?

Russell: No, I’ve never been one to hold my hat out in any way. That’s just not who I am. As a matter of fact, I’m not interested generally in playing people I’ve played before. I like doing new things. I did one sequel one time – Escape from L.A. And I did it for many different reasons. No, I think if you’re given the opportunity as an actor to do different things, do them. Don’t get stuck doing the same thing. 

Fandango: So you’re not open to playing the same character?

Russell: Well, I realize too that the times have really changed. We’re living in a time now where people are like, gee, why is television so good? Well, because that’s where the money is. That’s where people go – they go where the money goes. Writers, directors, actors – they’re going to where the money is.

Fandango: They’re doing cool things on TV right now…

Russell: When movies first started out we had Saturday serials. Then when television started going we had a once-a-week show. All of the moviemakers today grew up on that television, so finally now we’re living in a time where every actor, director and producer grew up on television. That’s in the back of their head. Now when you do movies or television, it’s all serial minded, and the business model is now very heavily entrenched in serial.

Fandango: Yeah, look at Marvel Studios. You’re a part of that now!

Russell: That’s where it is now, and however long it goes, it goes. But I don’t look at the things I did that they talk about making remakes of and think they’re sacred in any way. They’re not sacred. I did a remake of The Thing with John Carpenter and I’m really glad we did that because I liked what that movie was. I had never seen the original, but once we did ours I saw the original – I liked it, I thought for what the movie was I liked it very much. I liked ours, too. Just because something’s been done is no reason to not look at it and think about doing it again.

Fandango: What films do deserve remakes?

Russell: Yeah, well… to me there are criteria that need to be met. For starters, what was wrong with the first one? [Laughs] Was it miscast? Was there a flaw in the story? Did it choose to go down a path that had it not gone down it would’ve been a much better movie? If you can answer those questions yes, yes, yes, and check those boxes off, then I see no reason why you can’t do another version of it. But if you’re just in love with something and want to see it again, heads up. That can be a mistake.

Fandango: And they did The Thing again recently. Was that a mistake?

Russell: Well they tried, the same producer. He tried to do a prequel, I guess. Was that a prequel?

Fandango: I believe so, yeah.

RusselI: I saw it. I don’t remember it, but I saw it. Not a bad movie or any of that, but nothing jumped out at you that said, oh, that’s a good reason to make this movie. It didn’t do that. So it was a decent movie that couldn’t make people who saw it say, 'Oh you should see this because it's better than that other one.'

Fandango: That’s why people are forever reluctant to champion remakes.

Russell: Yeah, I do think that remakes you know about – that the audience knows about – they need to be better. They got to be better.

Fandango: Do you think audiences are more sophisticated now?

Russell: No, not at all. Audiences have always been sophisticated. Do you think they pay attention to movies now the way they did in the 1930s and 1940s? All they had was radio and movies. There was no television back then. Everybody knew everything about everything!

Fandango: Maybe they’re not more sophisticated, but there’s more competition for their attention. So you have to raise the level of everything you’re making.

Russell: Yes! That’s it. Always that – can you find a new way? That’s where sports and making movies are similar. When you’re a ball player, a hockey player, golfer – you are challenged with one main thing: Can you find a way to win? There are a lot of guys with talent; a lot of guys with ability and drive, but if you don’t have that little thing inside you that says "I gotta find a way, man – I cannot lose this game today…" Well, it’s also true as an actor, as a filmmaker, as a writer. Can you find a way? I know you’re smart and clever and experienced – I know you’ve gone to USC Film School and done all that. Well none of that matters. Can you simply find a way to show me something that makes me feel like it’s fresh? Can you do that? Because if you can, you stand a chance at succeeding in this industry. And that’s something you can’t teach!

Fandango: But you don’t know that going in, right? It may read well on the page, but you’re taking a chance.

Russell: That’s a good question. I think that certain people do know it, and they know it in spades. Other people, many other people, don’t. Therein lies their insecurity, and that’s a rough road. But if you know it – if you have the confidence, if you say, "I know what I’d like to see that I’ve never seen before…" and it makes sense. They’re not reaching for something, or trying to do something that’s completely unrealistic or wrong. It just makes sense, whether it be entertainment value, educational value, shock value – it’s warmth, emotional. When you talk about doing remakes, those are the things I care about. If you make me feel those things, you’re gonna win. So no reason not to try, but understand the game.

Fandango: Clearly you’re open to some of this, though. You’re doing a sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy, to Furious 7. 

Russell: Yeah, well listen – I’m in the business. What I haven't done yet or still is create a character that you go and do three or four films off of -- a franchise, basically.

Fandango: Do you want to do that?

Russell: It's not a question of [do I] want it -- that's not something I think about or that you'll hear me say. "Oh, you know what -- we can do five of these!" Look, part of me is like everyone else. If you do that, then great -- you can make a lot of money and have a lot of fun. But then I think about a lot of fun and as an actor, I don't know. I don't know if I'd get halfway through the second one and say, "I've made a big mistake. This is the last f**king thing I want to do -- to be in this f**king costume playing this f**king character the same way. I'm gonna go crazy!" But then again, you don't know until you do it.

Fandango: There’s always TV…

Russell: Well, I'm fooling right now actually with a project that was brought to me from my daughter Kate [Hudson], who had been approached by her two brothers, my two boys. It's a great arena -- it turns out Mel Gibson was interested in the same arena. So we all started talking about it, and it's a long-form TV series. To me, that rings a bell that I get.

Fandango: Because you can dive deeper into a character?

Russell: Yeah, so [unlike a movie] where you only have two hours to tell a story and get Machiavellian and find out about a character or characters, you've got all the time in the world. You can do what I enjoyed so much with Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones, which I'm just starting to watch. When I saw this, I thought this is a great arena for that. I think long-form storytelling is fascinating because you can get 360 degrees of a character, and there's no place else you can really do that like in that long form.

Fandango: What is the series about?

Russell: It's about the birth of San Francisco. The template for it is this book called The Barbary Coast, which was written by Herbert Asbury, who wrote the book The Gangs of New York. It's a fascinating story with fascinating characters, and it's a good template. You don't follow it necessarily, but it's a good template.

And that’s not the same character in episode after episode. But if you're doing Batman, can you say that? Can you say that as an actor to yourself that, well, this two-hour thing is an episode of my life. And now they want to do another episode of my life. But, ya know, this episode isn't as good as the other one, but you still want to do it because there's a lot of money involved here... so just put the suit on, we'll be fine [Laughs]. That's the kind of thing where there's something scary about that for me.

Fandango: So I guess you're not doing five more Marvel movies after this then?

Russell: What you'd have to do is put your mind to it, and then you'd need to address the things we've been talking about. You have to sit down and say, these are my issues -- these are my questions. I'm an audience too. We all run into our own integrity no matter what, as much as I hate to admit it. I need to find a way that this is going to grow and be fun and most of all for me it needs to be fun to find as we go along. Right now I got part of it -- we have to see. I don't know. I don't know if I fit into that mold. But it's nice of you to say I can still do it! [Laughs]

Stay tuned for more with Kurt Russell as we approach the September 30 release of Deepwater Horizon.