Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I heard that the Escape From New York remake was dead. Heh, sorry, that was cheesy, but I couldn't help myself.
A long while ago Gerard Butler was attached to a remake of John Carpenter's classic flick and then that fell apart. The Hollywood machine has tried to resurrect the project a few times since then, but nothing has stuck. Now it seems it might actually happen.
Deadline reports that Robert Rodriguez will helm a remake with John Carpenter onboard to produce (and Deadline insists he'll be there as a creative partner, not just collecting the check that comes with a remake of one of his properties). Fox will be making the movie.
Whether the movie makes it to production is anybody's guess, but what you can glean from this news is that Fox must be very happy with what Rodriguez is doing with Alita: Battle Angel or they wouldn't be signing him up for another big property.
I know Robert's super enthusiastic about Carpenter's original film, so there's also no doubt in my mind he wowed the studio people with his geeky excitement about what could be done with a reboot of this film.
In terms of subject matter the current political climate is ripe for a reboot of this story and not just from a left wing point of view either. Snake Plissken's a Libertarian poster child, after all.
The only other Carpenter movie that feels more timely than Escape From New York is They Live, but that one works so fully as a Reagan-era piece of political commentary that I'd hate to see it remade.
Escape From New York is another tough one, but there's enough fun in the premise that Rodriguez can run with it and make it his own, I think. Casting's going to be crucial on this. Who the hell can replace Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken? Maybe nobody. If it were me I'd make it a legacy sequel thing and bring Kurt back while introducing a new lead.
Straight remake or legacy sequel, I think they could do worse than locking down Emily Blunt. After watching Edge of Tomorrow it's not too difficult to see her slipping on eyepatch and lighting up a cigarette.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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