In the “What are they thinking?” department, we have word today that Joel Silver and Studio Canal are planing a reboot of the now classic 1981 John Carpenter directed film, Escape From New York. To make matters worse, Silver is planning a new franchise of the material and wants to make a trilogy similar to what Fox is doing with their Rise and upcoming Dawn of the Planet of the Apes property.
The original starred Kurt Russell as the cool as hell anti-hero Snake Plissken, along with Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence as the President, Isaac Hayes as The Duke, and Adrienne Barbeau as Maggie.
Deadline is reporting, Joel Silver‘s Silver Pictures has joined forces with Studio Canal to build a new franchise with a retelling of Escape From New York.
The 1981 John Carpenter original starred Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken, a tough convict dropped into a futuristic New York that has been turned into a post-apocalyptic maximum security prison. He’s charged with rescuing the president (Donald Pleasence), who is held hostage by the prison kingpin (Isaac Hayes) after his plane crashes within the city walls. Snake’s offered a pardon if he’s successful, but fitted with a lethal device that will kill him if he tries to run or misses the deadline.
Silver is planning an entirely new take on the material. The goal is to turn it into a trilogy, starting with an origin story in a fashion similar to the way Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes restarted that franchise. Studio Canal will finance development of the project before placing it with a studio. A writer search is underway.
Concerning who might play the Snake Plissken role, Gerard Butler (300), Jeremy Renner (The Bourne Legacy), Liam Neeson (Taken 2), and Tom Hardy (This Means War) have all been mentioned as possible replacements. Who do you think would make a worthy successor to Kurt Russell’s Plissken? Let me know in the comments below.
