New York magazine’s Vulture is reporting that the Escape From New York remake is once again moving forward at New Line Cinema thanks to a script re-write from scribe Allan Leob – the same writer behind the upcoming Wall Street 2 script, which apparently was in script limbo until Loeb took a crack at it. According to Vulture:
A big reason for the fast track was creative: Loeb nailed the humor in Plissken without slipping into camp, and he changed Snake’s rescue-mission target from a president to a female senator, thereby upping the banter quotient. But just as big a factor was economic: They found a much cheaper way to turn Manhattan into a giant prison.
What’s really interesting about this story is the stipulations that creator John Carpenter has put in place to keep the character of Snake Plissken ‘legit’. To land the rights to a remake New Line had to agree:
…that Plissken “must be called Snake”; “must wear an eye patch”; and that he would – and we’re not making this up – “always be a bad-ass”.
For one, I really DON’T want to see a remake of Escape From New York, but at least Carpenter has at least some ‘control’ over the character – although given how much of a balls up Carpenter himself made with Escape From LA, I still don’t hold out any hope…
