Still out there promoting his recent film festival title “The Last Photograph,” director Zack Snyder is talking up other projects he’s been linked to, including the remake of John Carpenter’s “Escape from New York” at Warner Bros. Pictures
In a new conversation with Josh Horowitz for the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Snyder explains how his take on the Carpenter classic will be set in the same ‘alternate 1997’ time period as the original:
“The approach is for me – the movie is going to be set in ’97. It’s from the perspective of 1981. I set the movie – the war between the United States police force and the criminal elements takes place on July 9, 1981 which is the release date of the original movie. The rest is pretty much Escape From New York.”
Thus we can expect a retro-futuristic vibe (ala “Alien: Isolation”). He also says he plans to preserve the original film’s mix of tone and social commentary:
“Talk about a movie that’s the perfect combination of kitsch and camp. It’s all the things, that’s why I love it. But also, it’s [in] a way that’s satire and can get to us. We can make comments about government and all the overreach or whatever you want to call it, the People’s Liberation Front of America, all that stuff is very … That’s in the headlines. It’s quite current, in some ways.”
Asked if he has an actor in mind to play Snake Pliskin. He says “I may,” but then asked if it’s an actor he has worked with before he adds, “I’m not going to say.” He does add: “He better look like Snake, or I’ll walk out.”
He also says that his “Watchmen” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” star Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been lobbying the filmmaker for a part: “whether it’s Snake or another [role]. He literally has been hitting me up. He’s the best. I love him. He’s great.”
The original film’s story is set in a future where the U.S. had become a totalitarian theocratic police state, and the island of Manhattan is now a walled-off maximum security prison.
Imprisoned former Special Forces officer ‘Snake’ Plissken (Kurt Russell) has twenty-four hours to go in, rescue the U.S. President who is being held by the city prison’s most dangerous crook, and get out again.
Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman will produce though their deal at StudioCanal. Snyder, Deborah Snyder and Wesley Coller also produce while Carpenter executive produces.
