For more than a decade, various names have been attached to attempts at a remake of John Carpenter’s iconic 1981 dystopian society-set thriller “Escape From New York”.
Kurt Russell starred in the original, which was set in a future where the U.S. had become a totalitarian theocratic police state, and the island of Manhattan was now a walled-off maximum security prison.
After a disaster befalls Air Force One, imprisoned former Special Forces officer Robert ‘Snake’ Plissken (Russell) has twenty-four hours to go in, rescue the U.S. President, who is being held by the prison’s most dangerous crook, and get out again.
Filmmakers like Robert Rodriguez and Leigh Whannel were previously linked to the remake, which was originally set up at New Line Cinema and is currently at 20th Century Studios.
Things picked up last month when word came that 2022’s “Scream” and “Ready or Not” directing trio Radio Silence (Tyler Gillett, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, and Chad Villella) came on board to helm.
The group have now spoken with EW and revealed that it would NOT be a direct remake of the original. Instead, it aims to be a “continuation and cite their recent “Scream” and “Scream VI” work as inspiration – offering a blend of established franchise characters alongside new ones. Gillett says:
“Not a remake. That’s one of those properties that you can’t [remake], it’s sort of untouchable to us, and lives in its own stratosphere in terms of how important it is to us, and how much we love it. So it’ll be not unlike ‘Scream,’ I think; a nod to, and a continuation of, what we love about those characters and that world.”
Villella offered an update on where the project stands right now and sadly it’s still very much in the nascent stages of development:
“We’re developing our take, and hopefully, it will be going to script sometime in the New Year, and just really starting to lay the groundwork for that. But very early stages.”
As such, it’s not clear if Russell’s Snake Plissken could return as a character and/or if the actor will be involved. He last played the Plissken role in 1997’s less well-received “Escape from L.A.”. It also begs the question as to whether, like with the recent “Halloween” trilogy, they could enlist Carpenter to handle the score.
