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Oh Hollywood

There’s Probably No Escape From The Escape From New York Reboot

by Jill Pantozzi | 2:47 pm, March 19th, 2013


Are we really surprised, Plissken?

Yes, it’s true. The 1981 film from John Carpenter is being primed for a reboot of sorts. The original starred Kurt Russell as “Snake” Plissken, a soldier turned convict asked to help save the President from the maximum security prison that is the island of Manhattan. Escape from New York was actually set for a remake a few years ago but never fully developed. Though according to Deadline, it’s back with a vengeance.

“Joel Silver‘s Silver Pictures has joined forces with Studio Canal to build a new franchise with a retelling of Escape From New York,” they write. “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.”

What are your thoughts on returning to this territory and do you think it makes sense to do an origin story? I admit Escape From New York is not one of my precious 80s films but I can’t see fans being happy about this.

(via /Film)

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  • http://twitter.com/keltar93 James Gardiner

    I can’t see something like this making sense from a business standpoint, let alone a creative one. Escape from New York is only a big name now among a select devoted fanbase. Said fanbase are the only built-in audience you earn from using the name, and those fans will automatically write off any remake of something they love.

  • http://profiles.google.com/thegneech John Robey

    An origin story for Snake is not just superfluous, it’s contrary to his nature. He’s like a cross between The Man With No Name, and the Joker. An origin story can only do damage.

  • Anonymous

    I’m getting trilogy fatigue. ‘Escape from New York’ was such an over-the-top, dirty-looking, eighties film – and that’s part of the appeal. I don’t see how they can update it, it would be like trying to update ‘Mad Max’ or something.

    Oh, wait. Oh.

    Well, good luck to them…I think? Finding an actor whose sneer can hold up through three films will be challenging (that sneer is central to Snake Plissken’s character – actually, it may just be it’s own character).

  • Gregory Williams

    Read the original book and you will find enough material to support an origin story in there – the man does for a fact have a background … whether or not it is worthy of an origin story development process is another argument entirely and depends upon the writer who develops it making a good case for a screen play/script … I am betting that an expanded look at the “present day” life and times of this universe and Plisskens place in it is a far richer field to mine than concentrating solely on his past.

  • Anonymous

    Only if he’s trying to escape trust fund foodies trying to capture him to use his body parts as ironic garnish in a Brooklyn food festival. Or maybe the billionaire mayor tries to kidnap him into a secret indentured gulag that covers city services abandoned because only rich people can live within a 2 hour radius.

  • Anonymous

    I think, in the right hands with the right actors, a reboot could be good. But it is, ultimately, unnecessary. I think instead of remaking movies like Escape from New York people should be remaking movies that could’ve been great, but maybe bad effects ruined them, or that simply didn’t get the attention they deserved, and therefore aren’t widely known today.

  • http://twitter.com/pennypuppycomic JP Gray

    You know what I would *really* like to see Hollywood bring back? Original ideas. Can they “reboot” creativity- please?

  • Ryan

    I want them to reboot the process of a writer writing a script for a story they want to tell and then finding a studio to make it, instead of studios hiring people to write their money making ideas.

  • Ryan

    That isn’t why they reboot things. They reboot movies that they thing were successful or already have an audience because they think it is less of a risk then something new. So they are less likely to reboot something that failed or something nobody has ever heard of.

  • Anonymous

    …I know that? I know why they reboot the movies they do, but in my opinion they should be rebooting other movies instead. I don’t understand the point of your comment.

  • Ryan

    The point of my comment is that you don’t understand the point of reboots.

  • Kol Drake

    There can be only One. Escape was a ‘hit’ due to three things — John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, and a fun script/vision of it from Carpenter. Now, trying to make money off a trilogy franchise (( similar to Planet of the Apes???? how well did THAT do??? )) I can not see anyone exceeding what Carpenter/Russell accomplished.

  • http://twitter.com/Sierra_BunnyFu Alaura Dannan

    No, they were actually trying to point out what the “point” of reboots SHOULD be. They understand the purpose of remakes/reboots , but anybody who thinks about it for a few seconds will realize that the point in remaking anything should be because it was flawed but had potential. However, this isn’t what is done, and the original commentor, as well as everyone in existence, is aware of the fact that popular things are remade to make money all over again. Rather than being rude, trying to understand what they were getting at would have been nice…Oh wait, this is the internet.

  • Ryan

    I know, it was very rude of me to live in the real world. I am terribly sorry. I will never try and live in the real world ever again. I am a terrible person.

  • Anonymous

    Good lord you have managed to completely miss the point of everything that has been said here.

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