Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez is set to direct 20th Century Fox’s reboot of John Carpenter’s cult classic “Escape From New York” Reboot, TheWrap has learned.
The studio won a bidding war for rights to the reboot in early 2015, with Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman’s The Picture Company set to produce.
Kurt Russell starred as the iconic one-eyed anti-hero Snake Plissken in the original Dystopian action film, released by Avco Embassy in 1981. Studiocanal owned the rights to the film, which had several suitors, and was won by Fox’s Mike Ireland on the back of the studio’s competitive bid.
Carpenter, who also directed classics including “Halloween” and “Assault on Precinct 13,” will serve as an executive producer on the remake.
Set 16 years in the future, the original “Escape From New York” imagined Manhattan after it had been turned into a maximum security prison. When the U.S. President’s plane crashes on the island, Plissken — a hardened, wise-cracking criminal — is tasked with bringing the Commander-in-Chief home safely. Carpenter directed the film and co-wote with Nick Castle. Ernest Borgnine, Isaac Hayes, Harry Dean Stanton, Lee Van Cleef and Adrienne Barbeau co-starred.
Neal Cross, creator of the BBC crime series “Luther,” beat out several writers to win the writing job, and delivered a first-draft in last October.
As TheWrap has exclsuively reported, in the new “Escape From New York,” New York City won’t be a maximum security prison, we’ll find out “Snake” Plissken’s real name, and the bad guy will be totally different than the original. Also? It won’t start in New York.
Rodriguez next up has “Alita: Battle Angel” for the studio. The movie is set to open July 20, 2018.
The news about “Escape from New York” was first reported by The Tracking Board.