Sony thought Kurt Russell was too old to play Snake again back in 2001!
John Carpenter has already been remade five times* over and number of future redos now sits at four**. Whether this pisses you off or not, I think we can all agree that we’ve passed the point of getting butthurt over every additional announcement. Let me just get the obvious out of the way now: Big Trouble In Little China will be remade at some point. Starman too, unless someone takes Bridges up on his interview musing about reprising the role. Even Prince of Darkness, In the Mouth of Madness, and Black Moon Rising will likely be reborn over the coming decades. It’s going to happen.
I could sit here and lambast the notion that Hollywood feels it necessary to re-purpose Carpenter’s previous works, instead of hiring him for new projects. There wouldn’t be much point though, would there? Not just because of the whole “name brands seem to sell over originals” line of thinking, but because John himself seems absolutely content in enjoying his partial retirement. Let’s be honest here. If John really wanted to be directing again on a regular basis, he could do so. The man still sits atop a multitude of smaller scale projects waiting to be helmed and I find it hard to believe that he couldn’t get at least a few of them made if he REALLY wanted to. After a change of priorities in the late 80s and a rough time in the 90s/00s***, John has every right to enjoy the freedom he has been granted. More power to him!
So yes, Escape From New York is back on deck to be remade again. This isn’t the first time, as previous incarnations over the past eight years have had the likes of Neal H. Moritz, Breck Eisner, Len Wiseman, Gerard Butler, Tom Hardy and Jeremy Renner attached at one time or another. All have withered on the developmental vine and seen the rights return to their owner: Carpenter himself. Another warrior has now arisen to pull this sword from its proverbial stone: uber-producer Joel Silver, with back-up provided by Studio Canal and fellow producers Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman.
Naturally the goal here is to craft a trilogy of post-apocalyptic actioners centered around our antihero, “Snake” Plissken, and reportedly beginning with some sort of “origin story”…whatever that means. Will it completely focus on Snake’s time in the military and save the events of Carpenter’s original film for the sequel? Or will we simply get small glimpses of said past? Who knows. Normally I would be worried about this sort of de-mystification of a cult character. Given Carpenter’s “dos and don’ts” list that he hadn’t written into the contract when New Line previously purchased the rights from him, I am less inclined to furrow my brow at such a notion. I fully expect this to be a more action-oriented (and likely non-satirical) affair than the existing films, especially considering Silver’s involvement.
No writer or director are attached at this time, but I fully expect both will be located by the end of the summer. Until then, who would you like to see tackle this property? And who should take on Kurt’s mantle? On another site, someone suggested that Silver should cast Tom Jane in the lead as an apology for what happened with Bullet To The Head. While I severely doubt that would ever happen, it’s an idea I could get behind with the right writers and director on board.
As a bonus, here’s the bitchin’ secondary theme that John gave Snake in his sophomore romp..
Source | Deadline
* – Assault On Precinct 13 (2005), The Fog (2005), Halloween (2007), The Thing (2011), and The Philadelphia Experiment (2012). Yes, I realize that the ’11 version of The Thing is technically a prequel, but it also serves as a soft reboot.
** – Remakes of Eyes of Laura Mars, Christine, They Live, and now (once again) Escape From New York are in various stages of development.
*** – Something I could easily prattle on about for paragraphs. Perhaps another time.