ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK: Zack Snyder Set to Create a Re-imagining of Popular 1981 Science Fiction Film

Escape from New York Reboot in the Works

Zack Snyder will be recreating the 1981 John Carpenter science fiction classic, Escape from New York, in a re-imagining of the popular film.

Kurt Russell played Snake Plissken, the hero at the center of Carpenter’s Escape from New York. It was a signature role for the Hollywood actor and launched him to stardom. Set in Manhattan, Snake Plissken was a convict assigned to rescue the President of the United States in order to secure his own freedom. It was a riveting action thriller that was among Carpenter’s very best early movies. Now, Zack Snyder (Rebel Moon) is set to write and direct the reboot which has passed through many different directors’ hands as a potential project. Snyder is finally making it happen.

It sounds like a perfect project for Snyder who excels at science fiction films. He’s made movies with an edge to them such as Sucker Punch even though he’s best known for his successful superhero movies such as Man of Steel. Escape from New York was one of Carpenter’s most distinct films and it is likely that Snyder will give the reboot a polish in regard to the original material and the new film should add Snyder’s own unique style to it.

This upcoming movie, if successful, comes with sequel prospects. The original Escape from New York was followed by a sequel 15 years later, Escape from L.A. Although it was less successful as a work of art than the 1981 picture was, it still proved to be a moderately successful follow-up movie. The Rotten Tomatoes score for both films are like night and day, though. The 1981 film has an 85% approval rating while the 1996 movie has a mere 57% approval rating from critics.

Snyder knows how to make a good action picture, even if his Rebel Moon movies for Netflix were scathingly received. Sucker Punch was a really different piece of work for Snyder in 2011. It may have only grossed less than $90 million worldwide, but proved to be a film that shows what Snyder is capable of from an originality standpoint. Though his later superhero movies further show Snyder can make a box-office hit, Sucker Punch remains a very well-respected vision that Snyder brought to the screen despite its wickedly bad 23% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

If Snyder can rework the magic he brings to his superhero movies with Escape from New York, it is bound to be a box-office hit and a lot of the film’s success will ride on its casting choices. Finding an action hero as good as Kurt Russell could prove problematic, but we’re optimistic that Snyder can make it happen. Look for more on this exciting project as it develops, especially regarding the film’s casting choices for both leading and supporting roles within the picture.

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