Zack Snyder is set to write and direct a reimagining of Escape from New York, the dystopian cult classic from John Carpenter, Deadline can confirm.
Details as to the plot of the new film remain under wraps. StudioCanal announced it at CinemaCon in April. The Picture Company’s Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman will produce through their overall deal with StudioCanal, which shares rights to the property with Carpenter. Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder and Wesley Coller will produce via Stone Quarry, with Carpenter serving as executive producer. The project is intended for release in theaters.
One of the most influential science-fiction action films ever produced, Escape from New York introduced viewers to the eyepatch-wearing antihero S.D. “Snake” Plissken (Kurt Russell), a decorated Special Forces veteran turned federal convict who is coerced into rescuing the U.S. President from Manhattan, in a world where the entire island has been turned into a maximum security prison.
Released in July 1981, the film grossed more than $50 million worldwide against a $6 million budget, spurring the production 15 years later of sequel Escape from L.A.
Attempts to remake Escape from New York go back decades, with various studios and creatives eyeing projects at different points – Joel Silver, Robert Rodriguez, Radio Silence, and Leigh Whannell, among them.
Known for projects like Army of the Dead and a number for DC, including Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Snyder is currently in post on The Last Photograph, a drama following an ex-DEA operative and war photographer in search of a pair of missing children in South America. He reunites on the project with Stuart Martin and Fra Fee, stars of his Rebel Moon sci-fi films for Netflix.
News of Snyder’s involvement with Escape from New York was first reported by THR.
