Breck Eisner Taking On ‘Escape From New York’ Reboot

As usual, the Hollywood brain trust has decided that instead of looking forward and creating some original work, they will instead look to the past for inspiration and take yet another great film and add it to the remake/reboot pile. The film in question this time, John Carpenter’s Escape from New York.

Granted, Escape isn’t exactly a classic in the strictest sense of the word, but it is considered by many, myself included, to be one of the best action/sci-fi movies of the last thirty years. So, much like Predators and so many others of late, I’m not exactly thrilled it will be receiving the reboot treatment.

That said, there is one potential bright spot here now that we know Breck Eisner will be handling the directing duties on the film. His recent work on The Crazies showed he’s got a lot of skills and my hope is that he’ll be able to do something really interesting and innovative with the Escape story.

In case you’re not familiar with the original 1981 film (which if you’re not, get familiar) it was set in a futuristic 1997 where a walled-off Manhattan island had been turned into a maximum-security prison. Air Force One, with the President on board, crashes on the island and newly captured super criminal and ex-war hero Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is coerced into a rescue mission. The new film will reportedly try to mix in an origin story for Snake with the story of the original film.

To be honest, I’m not sure we need an origin story for Snake. He was a pretty great character when his past was somewhat mysterious and you knew just enough about him. Might be best to stick with the original material. However, because I like the original so much and Eisner has some chops, I’m going to try and give this one a chance.

And hey, now that they have a director, maybe they can get Gerard Butler back? He would be a pretty great choice to play Snake Plissken. Or, perhaps Eisner will get past collaborator Timothy Olyphant to play Snake? That  could be cool too.

What about you guys, are you excited for an Escape from New York reboot?