Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Daniel Robert Epstein over at Suicidegirls.com has a fantastic interview with John Carpenter, going over much of his work. They talk a little about the ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK remake and Carpenter drops this nugget:
Daniel Robert Epstein: I spoke with Will O'Neil who wrote one of those Snake Plissken comic books a few years ago. He had said that you, Kurt [Russell] and [producer] Debra Hill owned the character of Snake. Is that true? John Carpenter: Yes, but we share it with Canal Plus. It’s a long story, but the movie was originally made for a company called Avco Embassy. Avco Embassy was sold to Dino De Laurentiis. Dino De Laurentiis sold his share to Canal Plus. DRE: So in this remake they’re talking about... John: I don’t know that it’s a remake. I think it’s a lot about Snake before he gets to New York.