One of the John Carpenter's most celebrated cult-film Escape From New York is getting a remake from producer Joel Silver. The dystopian sci-fi action flick follows a fallen hero who has become the most famous outlaw in a crumbling fascist America, where entire cities are setup as guard-less prisons. Propaganda and the police-state rule the country, with most freedoms becoming outlawed. Snake is forced into saving the day on suicide-missions, usually with threat of death/execution.
Starlog reports that the three new names being in the mix for Snake include Charlie Hunnam, Dan Stevens (The Guest, Downton Abbey) and Jon Bernthal (Wolf of Wall Street, Walking Dead, Fury). Stating that Hunnam is the top-choice for the role, but cautious considering his recent involvement in top-lining Guy Ritchie's Knights of The Roundtable: King Arthur, taking the Arthur role.
Out of the three names, the one that stands-out as solid potential lead is Dan Stevens. The trailer for his well received action thriller The Guest, has gotten my attention and I expect big things for the British actor. If he decides to pursue a career in action film. I also have nominated Stevens to play Daniel Rand in Marvel's Netflix series Iron Fist. Here's hoping he lands the Plissken role first.
There has been talk the reboot will actually be a slight prequel to the events of the original movie, exploring a bit of the origins of Snake in the first film, what gave him his hero status. Before being thrown into the meat-grinder of the prison city of New York. The site mentions that it's going to be more of a team-based film than we've know the films to be. Claiming that actors being looked-at for the lead, will likely take supporting parts in the reboot. Which is said to be the first in a new trilogy (that's if this even get's made, and is even welcomed by audiences).
Producer Joel Silver talked to Collider and revealed a majority of these details back in February. Silver also confirmed they didn't have a completed script, we haven't heard names of who is actually writing or directing the film (directors have come and gone). Starlog states the studio is also looking for investment partners and will be shopping the film at The American Film Market. This could mean the remake will be made outside of the studio system, which tends to lead to more interesting films. Dredd being an excellent example of a solid indie remake.
“There was a videogame that came out a few years ago called 'Arkham City,' which shows how Gotham became this kind of walled prison and how it became a walled prison. And they never deal with that in the story of 'Escape from New York,' so part of our idea was to kind of see how the city became this walled prison and how the Snake Plissken character was a hero and how he became not looked at as a hero. And then, in the middle of the story, would be the movie that we, you know, previously saw about the President’s daughter goes down, he has to go in and get her. And then, you know, they did a sequel, 'Escape from L.A.,' but I would like to then kind of find a way to have New York go back to a place that we’d like to see what it is today.”
These aren't the first names to be linked for the Snake Plissken role, during the reboot's many years of development. Names such as Gerard Bulter, Jason Statham, Tom Hardy and Timothy Olyphant (Justified, Dead Wood) have been mentioned in trade reports concerning the recasting the Snake role. It's unknown if any of these past candidates would be willing to appear in the film.
SOURCE: STARLOG
