Zack Snyder, the force behind movies like 300, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Rebel Moon, has set his sights on a remaking of John Carpenter’s 1981 classic film, Escape From New York.
The original movie featured Kurt Russell as the eyepatch-wearing Snake Plissken, a military man turned outlaw who is tasked with rescuing the President from a crash landing in Manhattan, which in this dystopian version of 1997, has been turned into a walled penitentiary.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Snyder will be shopping the remake to studios in the upcoming weeks, with plans to have the film release in theaters rather than on a streamer. The director plans to have the movie be more “more down and dirty” and lean more on practical effects than CGI.
This isn’t the first attempt to push a remake of Escape From New York. Carpenter also came out with the sequel Escape From LA in 1996, but more recently, New Line and 20th Century Fox tried to make Escape From New York films with numerous directors and actors attached. Snyder is now trying with StudioCanal, which THR reports is trying to amp up its franchises, something they’ve already done with Paddington and Evil Dead.
Synder’s project is still in its very early days, so it’s certainly possible his version of the movie will never make its way to a theater near you. There’s a perfect Escape From New York movie already out in the world, however, which I encourage you to give a (re)watch.
