Producer Joel Silver’s company Silver Pictures may be planning a reboot of John Carpenter’s Escape from New York. According to Deadline, Silver is in the early stages of development, but he’s planning an “entirely new take” on the film. While the original franchise encompassed Escape from New York and its less well-received sequel Escape from LA — along with comic book and novel tie-ins — Silver apparently wants a full trilogy, including an “origin story” presumably centering on the enigmatic Snake Plissken, originally played by Kurt Russell.
‘Escape From New York’ could be rebooted as a trilogy by Joel Silver’s production company
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
While we’re over a decade past the year of the film’s setting and turning Manhattan into a high-security prison is no longer seen as a viable solution to urban crime, this is actually the second time someone has tried to reboot the franchise. New Line Cinema acquired the rights in 2007, initially planning to bring in Gerard Butler as Snake and John Carpenter as an executive producer. After several years of rumored changes, it apparently let the option expire, allowing Silver to pick up rights from Studio Canal. So far, we know little else: Silver Pictures and Studio Canal are reported to be looking for a writer, but we don’t know which studio will take over development or who, if anyone, is currently under consideration for Plissken’s role.
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