Could it really be true about the rumour I wrote up here on Filmstalker the other day about Gerard Butler starring in a remake of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York? Well a story today is suggesting just that.
While everyone else still refers to it as a rumour, Reuters and The Hollywood Reporter through Yahoo News are talking like it’s a done deal.
Certainly New Line now have the rights to the remake and they have comments from Carpenter himself:
“Snake is one of my fondest creations. Kurt Russell did an incredible job, and it would be fun to see someone else try…I just thought it was a futuristic action movie when I did it the first time. It was a script that I used to fulfill a contract. And Kurt was primarily known as a child actor, and I thought it might be interesting to see him in a role like that. … There’s something fun about (Plissken). I think Kurt borrowed the eye patch from Kirk Douglas in ‘The Vikings’ — that’s my suspicion.
Well it went on to redefine Russell and become a cult classic. However I haven’t really heard a proper confirmation that Butler is in as the Russell character from the original, Snake Plissken, until now. Here’s how they write it up:
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – “300” star Gerard Butler is attached to play Snake Plissken in a remake of the cult classic “Escape From New York.”
Well to me that’s a confirmation, and indeed I’ve just seen the confirmation again on Variety. Well done Mr Butler. Now this could be a complete hit or a complete miss, I don’t think there’s going to be room for a middle ground on such a cult classic.
The film shows a future world where New York has been walled in and become a lawless aximum security prison. Try to escape and you will be killed. At the start of the film Air Force One crashes into the island and the President is missing along with the nuclear football. Teams go in, there’s no sign, and they are forced out by the “inmate” gangs. They need one guy who can go in, rescue him and get out. Enter Snake, a long term offender on his last chance. Wired with a timed explosive he has one chance, find the President and get him out alive.
Carpenter is going to executive produce, but who will we see write and direct the remake? Who would you like to see make it?