Zack Snyder to Direct ‘Escape from New York’ Reboot

(Left) ‘Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver’ director Zack Snyder. (Right) Kurt Russell in ‘Escape from New York’. Photo: AVCO Embassy Pictures.

Preview:

Zack Snyder is attached to a new ‘Escape from New York.’
It’ll re-imagine the John Carpenter classic.
The project is being sent out to studios.

Among the movies that studios have tried to remake time and again without success (learn more about those who made the attempt below), John Carpenter’s cult 1981 action classic ‘Escape from New York’ sits squarely near the top of titles with the most versions that foundered in development.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, ‘Rebel Moon’ and ‘300’ director Zack Snyder is looking to change all that, signing to make his own version for StudioCanal and The Picture Company.

A package that includes Snyder as both writer and director is now headed out to studios for bidding –– with the aim of, unlike the filmmaker’s most recent sci-fi epic, generating a theatrical release.

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What’s the story of ‘Escape from New York’?

(L to R) Kurt Russell and Adrienne Barbeau in ‘Escape from New York’. Photo: AVCO Embassy Pictures.

Carpenter’s film was set in a dystopian future (then 1997) where Manhattan had been turned into an island-sized maximum-security prison. When the President of the United States crash lands into the decaying city, with sensitive information that could change the world, former military hero-turned-outlaw Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is coerced into rescuing man and has to face gangs, the army, and ex-associates in order to survive.

Snyder reportedly wants to shoot this one as practically as possible, and key will be finding someone who can bring the right level of grimy swagger to Snake.

Who else has tried to remake ‘Escape from New York’?

Academy Award presenter Gerard Butler arrives at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, CA, on Sunday, March 7, 2010. Credit/Provider: Richard Harbaugh / ©A.M.P.A.S. Copyright: ©A.M.P.A.S.

The list of those is fulsome: New Line had the rights for a period that saw Len Wiseman, Brett Ratner and Breck Eisner among those playing musical director chairs and Gerard Butler attached to play Plissken. Robert Rodriguez was attached to direct a version when the rights were with 20th Century Fox in 2017( when the studio was still 20th Century Fox!), while ‘Ready or Not’ directing team Radio Silence was involved with a more recent incarnation.

Zack Snyder attends the Netflix’s Tudum: A Global Fan Event 2023 at Fundação Bienal de São Paulo on June 17, 2023 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Photo by Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images for NETFLIX.