Deadline reports that 20th Century Fox has landed the rights to remake John Carpenter’s cult-classic Escape From New York. This new rights deal would mean the previous reboot project which had been in development for ages will be completely scrapped. Fox will be starting from scratch and likely ditching all previous scripts or outlines hiring their own writers.
The previous incarnation was looking for directors with little experience and was said to be a prequel of sorts as we would learn the origins of the franchise hero Snake Plissken, going from a national military hero to serial criminal and professional escape artist.
In the original film Snake is put on a forced suicide mission to retrieve the President who get’s lost in Manhattan which is now city-sized prison colony which is led by murderous gang leader named The Duke.
The less said about it’s horrible sequel Escape From LA, the better.
There have been plenty of actors linked for the recasting of Snake Plissken including Gerard Butler. More recently names like Sons of Anarchy‘s Charlie Hunnam, Thor‘s Chris Hemsworth and The Guest‘s Dan Stevens had been rumored but seemingly were only rumors.
Here’s hoping Fox actively pursues Dan Stevens for the role of Snake.
Considering how Fox has handled rebooting the Planet of The Apes franchise I’m beyond excited by the news. It also opens the door for someone like Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman, X-Men First Class, Layer Cake) or Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Dawn of The Planet of The Apes, Let Me In) to direct or write the reboot.
