Back in July of 2011, our own Rob Hunter rejoiced with the news that New Line and Warner Bros. had let their option on the rights to that Escape From New York remake no one really seemed to want expire and thus, there would be no remake! Ha! We spoke too soon!
Now Deadline Hollywood reports that Joel Silver, along with his Silver Pictures and Studio Canal have teamed up to remake the Kurt Russell-starring, John Carpenter-directed cult classic with all manner of attached buzzwords. The first film will be a “retelling” of the story that will somehow also be “an entirely new take on the material” with an eye to kicking things off with an “origin story” that will launch a new franchise, most likely a trilogy. And that, my friends, is a Hollywood remake bingo.
Back when Warner and New Line were making their new Escape with producer Neil Mortiz and director Breck Eisner, a number of names were bandied about to take on Russell’s epic Snake Plissken role, including Gerard Butler, Jeremy Renner, and Tom Hardy. Weirdly, Deadline Hollywood also seems to think that Liam Neeson could make a good Snake – probably because Silver and Studio Canal produced his Unknown and the upcoming Non-Stop, and certainly not because he’s in any way age appropriate (he’s just two years younger than Russell).