Among the many abandoned movie reboots to have fallen by the wayside in Hollywood in recent years,Leigh Whannell’s remake of John Carpenter’s dystopian action movieEscape From New Yorkis one that appears to have been lost in the churn. While there has never exactly been confirmation of what happened to the project based on the cult classic that sawKurt Russelltaking on the iconic role of Snake Plissken, Whannell has addressed the chances of him ever getting to bring the project back to life.
Whannell is currently promotinghis new Universal horror movie,Wolf Man, and during an interview withComicBook, the director said that he would certainly be open to revisiting the classic movie, but doesn’t see it happening anytime soon. He said:
“It’s so funny, with the movie industry, projects can die for various reasons. It can be something as simple as, ‘Oh, we lost the rights,’ it could be something like I’m just not gelling with the producers. I feel like the projects that do come to life are almost accidents. Like, ‘Oh, this one actually happened.’ So I think, for now, Escape from New York, if it came back around, I’d think about it, but for now, it’s not happening.”
Whannell’s view on the subject can be seen as positive or negative – or a mix of both – depending on your stance when it comes to remakes of classic movies. For those who believe that Hollywood has too much of an obsession with rehashing old stories into new movies, then perhaps the current defunct status of a potential remake is the best news Whannell could have given.
When talk ofEscape From New Yorkbeing remade first surfaced, fans were not exactly on board with the idea of Russell’s iconic eye-patch-wearing anti-hero being recast. However, the latest iteration of the possible reboot came at the same time as Russell and his son Wyatt were working together onMonsterVerseseriesMonarch: Legacy of Monsters. This saw many decide that ifEscape From New Yorkhad to be remade – it doesn’t – then there was only one man they wanted to see in the role of Snake Plissken: Wyatt Russell.
Kurt Russell Loves His Escape From New York Character, but Won’t “Bleed” Him for Money
Kurt Russell explained what he loves about Escape from New York’s Snake Plissken, and how he has turned down projects involving the character.
Playing the same character at different times in his life inMonarchhad manyfans wanting to see the younger Russelltaking over his father’s famous role, but when the subject came up in an interview, Wyatt was not exactly fully on board with the idea. He said at the time:
“Everybody’s said that. Part of what made his career so cool is that they were so unique. They have this living, breathing life beyond an opening weekend and that’s only because they’re these incredible ideas. John Carpenter and Kurt Russell and everybody else on those movies created them, and they’re incredibly contained, they’re original ideas, [they weren’t] comic books before. I guess ‘The Thing’ was from ‘Who Goes There?’ or whatever. I know people have tried to remake them, I think it’s a bad idea, to be honest.”
For now, it looks like fans ofEscape from New Yorkcan rest safe in the knowledge that a reboot is not happening yet. Whether this changes in the future, we can only wait and see, but even if Wyatt Russell is not up for taking over the role, it seems that Whannell would be more than happy to get behind the camera for it.
