We’ve known an ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK remake was coming for awhile. 20th Century Fox has been high on getting this project off the ground, and, as we all know, when a studio really wants to do something, come hell or high water, they’re making it happen.
The key though isn’t whether or not it’s done at all; it’s whether or not it’s done well. And today Fox took a nice step in the right direction toward redoing Snake Plissken, naming LUTHER creator Neil Cross as the film’s writer to start. Cross’ feature film resume is hardly lengthy, as he penned MAMA for Universal and also did some work on PACIFIC RIM. The BBC series LUTHER has really been his bread and butter, for good reason, and anyone who has watched the Idris Elba show would have a hard time telling you they wouldn’t want to see Cross handling other properties as well to see how they’d turn out under his sensibilities.
Fox is hoping this will turn out more like their reopening of PLANET OF THE APES did, when they took the prequel route. Fans were certainly skeptical when they heard what the studio’s plans were there, but, in bringing in the right talent to make it work and crafting a story worth telling, it was able to fight against the remake/reboot stigma and become something people are enthusiastic about. That is well within the realm of possibility again.
John Carpenter will be executive producing, and is said to be creatively involved as well, so there’s that feather added to the ESCAPE remake’s hat, too. He did make the original after all, so if he’s cool with it and working to make this one up to snuff, then a benefit of the doubt would certainly be nice to give.