Joel Silver leads new Escape From New York remake attempt
Producer Joel Silver's heading up a new effort to remake John Carpenter's Escape From New York, with a trilogy of movies planned...
The last time we heard anything about a remake of John Carpenter's fabulous Escape From New York, it was one of several projects lined up for director Breck Eisner, whose last movie was the extremely effective remake of George Romero's The Crazies. For whatever reason, production company New Line decided to let the rights to Escape From New York quietly lapse back in 2011, and that appeared to be the end of it.
Two years later, and producer Joel Silver is reportedly taking on the property. It's said that he plans to turn John Carpenter's sci-fi thriller into three films, with the first telling an origin story, not unlike Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes.
The 1981 film introduced Kurt Russell's eye-patched, laconic anti-hero Snake Plissken, who was forced on pain of death to rescue Donald Pleasance' s unpleasant president from a fortified prison colony on Manhattan Island. A tough, cynical action thriller, Escape was a sort of spiritual successor to Carpenter's similarly gritty, downbeat Assault On Precinct 13, and like that film, became an instant cult classic. Belated sequel Escape From LA (1996) struggled to make the same impact, and the property's lain dormant ever since.
Numerous actors have been linked to the Plissken role, with names including Gerard Butler, Tom Hardy and Jeremy Renner thrown into the hat of rumours. Now that Silver's in control of the franchise, there'll no doubt be a new wave of speculation as to who will play the macho lead - not to mention who'll be given the job of writing and directing.
The suggestion that Silver's Escape From New York will diverge from Carpenter's, we're wondering what to expect from the first film and its supposed origin tale - will it tell the story of Plissken's origins, or explain how New York became a prison island?
More news on the Escape From New York remake as we get it.
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Jason Statham as Snake?
Snake Plissken?? I thought he was dead!!!
So long as he doesn't need a Kurt Russel style mullet.
what about the gov from walking the dead, i ain't just saying it for the eye patch but he's actually good.
How about the title? 'Escape from the Remake' sounds nice.
It seems obvious that remaking movies that were already good and don't need remakes is the refuge of talentless hollywood shlubs who have nothing to offer creatively.
If they had any talent,
they'd take a flawed movie with potential and make it better.
But since they dont,
they'll just steal someone else's creativity and then dumb it down for ignorant 12 year olds with videogame attention spans.
Stuff like this isn't even worth pirating to me.
But I hope that all the 12 year olds who are going to want to see it anyway because they dont know any better (not entirely their fault),
pirate it for free instead of giving it any money at the theater.
That would be sufficiently stupid,
to entertain a 12 year old.
How about lil wayne as the Duke of new york.
The original is the only film in Carpenter's catalog that I cannot stand. I think the only way with a remake is up. But that may not happen, so I'm cautious.
I'm looking forward to someone producing "Escape From Remake" ...
What happened to escape from earth?
PLEASE don't make it - but if you do Josh Holloway would be a good Plissken
I give you the death of SNAKE PLISSKEN!
Oh God!!! Here we go again. An upcoming crap remake of another classic film. Why don't they just start remaking every film ever made EVER after a certain year? They might as well.
Say start with 1980 as they like murdering films, and just remake everything between 1980 and 2013. Year by year.
It was called Lockout
What about the dude who plays the governor
Who wants an origin story?
I hate to be redundant based on comments already made, but could someone tell me why we "need" a remake of this particular movie? It was corny, overacted and poorly written. And most importantly, despite all of that, it's a frigging classic! The chances of having that particular combination with current Hollywood trends is shaky at best.
Yet ANOTHER John Carpenter movie being remade.
Now I'm not keeping track, but so far it's: "Halloween", "The Fog" , "The Thing", "Assault on Precinct 13", (and I believe) "They Live".
Basically all his legendary movies.
Good job Hollywood.
Another crappy remake, "the more things change the more they stay the same"