It seems as though Snake Plissken is next for the remake block with Deadline reporting that Joel Silver’s Silver Productions and Studio Canal are looking to put a new look to the 1981 classic Escape from New York – and even build a trilogy around it.
A remake had been on the cards a couple of years ago with Breck Eisner (The Crazies) directing and Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises), Jeremy Renner (The Avengers) or Gerard Butler (300) in the leading role. However the project fell through when New Line let the option lapse two years ago.
The plan now is to reboot the film and give it a Rise of the Planet of the Apes style ‘origin story’ treatment. Does that mean we’ll get to see New York become the prison it is in 1997?
Studio Canal also worked with Silver on the Liam Neeson action films Unknown and Non-Stop which has sparked some rumours that the Taken star will be taking on the eye-patched Plissken. However both Neeson and Kurt Russell (who played Plissken in Escape From New York and its surfboarding sequel Escape from L.A.) are the same age which seems a little bit pointless. Logic dictates that they’ll look for a younger star.
What are your thoughts on an Escape from New York trilogy? Who would you cast as the iconic Snake Plissken?
Originally published March 18, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
