To say we’re not all that keen on the idea of remaking John Carpenter’s iconic Escape from New York would be an understatement, but this latest development certainly makes the project slightly more appealing.
Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, 20th Century Fox has brought in genre fave Leigh Whannell to write this upcoming new take on Escape from New York. At this juncture, Whannell is purely penning the redo… although the door is reportedly open for him to direct.
Having famously exploded on to the scene with Saw alongside James Wan, Whannell has since go on to write Saw II, Saw III, the four Insidious movies to date, Cooties, The Mule and Upgrade. In addition to that, the Australian made his directorial debut with Insidious: Chapter 3 and has since helmed the aforementioned (and might brilliant!) Upgrade.
In addition to this news, of course, it was recently confirmed that Leigh Whannell would also be writing and directing Universal’s new take on The Invisible Man.
For this new Escape from New York, the plan is to pull plenty from Carpenter’s 1981 effort while similarly serving up fresh ideas. In some encouraging news, it’s being reported that remakes such as Total Recall and RoboCop are being used as examples of how not to do a remake.
If for some reason you’re unfamiliar with the original Escape from New York, Kurt Russell played the ridiculously cool Snake Plissken in the far-off time of 1997. With the United States overflowing with crime, Manhattan Island is turned into a walled-off maximum security prison. After the President ends up being held hostage in Manhattan, Snake is deemed the best (and most expendable) man to go in and save the day. In addition to Russell putting in one of his most beloved performances to date, the rest of the brilliant cast is made up of the likes of Donald Pleasance, Lee Van Cleef, Isaac Hayes, Adrienne Barbeau, Ernest Borgnine and Harry Dean Stanton.
The Escape from New York remake has actually been in development for a little while now, with names such as Jon Bernthal and Dwayne Johnson suggested for the role of Snake Plissken.
As ever, expect more on all of this as it continues to develop.
