Everything old is new again.Escape from New York, one of John Carpenter’s most classic movies, is in the process of being rebooted.Director Robert Rodriguez(From Dusk Till Dawn) is attached to direct. Carpenter has already signed off on the choice of director, but now we have some more good news from the franchise creator. According to screenwriter Neil Cross, Carpenter has also signed off on the script. Here’s what he had to say about it in a recent interview.
“Robert Rodriguez is attached to direct and it’s looking good and exciting. It was quite achallenging script, it’s a challenging thing to reinvent. One of the most terrifying sentences I’ve ever heard in my life is ‘we’ve given the script toJohn Carpenter’. I crawled around for three days thinking ‘oh my god’ but we got John Carpenter’s seal of approval. He approved it and that’s all I need. You never quite know [if it’s done] but I might need to do some rewrites and do some nip and tuck but in the first approximation, my job is done.”
That should be encouraging for fans who are worried aboutEscape From New York getting rebooted, but it also gives us an idea of where the movie is currently. The studio has yet to set a release date, so it was a little unclear where things were in the process. Now we know the script is pretty much done, which means pre-production will likely begin, assuming the rest of the pieces fall into place. There’s no telling if this potential talk of Disney, or another studio, purchasing Fox could affect something like this.
The originalEscape From New Yorkfollows Kurt Russell’s iconic characterSnake Plissken. It is set in an apocalyptic future where Manhattan has been turned into an island-sized maximum security prison. Snake is sent in to rescue the President of the United States, who has crashed into this ruined and chaotic city. The original movie was set in 1997 and since it came out in 1981. The sequel,Escape From L.A., was released in 1996 and, unfortunately, couldn’t quite live up to the legacy of the original. Though, the movie does have its defenders.
The toughest part ofrebooting Escape From New York, which is said to be a prequel and not a remake, is having to cast someone other than Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken. Currently, there’s no word on who Fox is looking at for the role.Deadline’sreport wasn’t able to shed any light on that, but Neil Cross has finished the script and John Carpenter seems to be fully on board. What more could you ask for at this point? We’ll be sure to keep you up to date as more details on theEscape From New Yorkreboot are made available.
