Neil Cross Updates on ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK Redo

Neil Cross, who created the BBC detective television series Luther, shares his take on the remake of the John Carpenter classic that includes a re-imagination of the iconic film.

In this version, we discover that Snake Plissken Came from an abusive, broken home that leads him to a life of crime which leads to the loss of his eye.

Plissken’s rank of U.S. army lieutenant with the Special Forces Black Light division has now been upgraded to Colonel and we discover his first name is, Robert.

There will be no ‘Duke of New York – A Number One’, as the antagonist has been changed to an evil, playboy heir to an agrochemical and Biotech Corporation known as Thomas Newton. The character that legendary Lee Van Cleef portrayed (Bob Hauk) will now be a CIA director known as Roberta Hauk.

Instead of ‘escaping’ from the maximum prison of New York, we now have Snake breaking in and exiting from a pristine, techno-utopia that Superstorm Ellery; a CGI’d hurricane threatens the city within 11 hours to complete his mission instead of the 22 the original film presented him with. In the original film, Snake had to save the president. In this new version, his mission is a mystery.

In this reporter’s humble opinion on this synopsis, you might as well add in the West Ham United football team, a musical number from La La Land while the Care Bears fly through the air magically aiding Snake on his mission.

Why bother?

John Carpenter talked about Snake’s next ‘Escape’ film after the abysmal, Escape from L.A., where the story was to take place on a space station above Earth, which the film Lock Out truly had the Plissken touch. If one were on the remake binge (there are so many good, original stories out there begging to be made, but sorely ignored), why not just remake this movie with Snake in it?

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