Escape From New York Remake News Keeps Getting Worse

Put this on the list of movies that don't need to be remade, revisited, re-imagined or whatever the latest politically correct term is for a non-original movie production: John Carpenter's Escape From New York.

Beyond the fact that I don't think this movie needs to be remade we have this: First came the news a couple of days ago that Len Wiseman (Underworld, Live Free or Die Hard) who this past August was confirmed as the director for the film was now off the project. His supposed replacement? Brett Ratner.

Movie News Grab Bag

A guy just can't take a vacation around here... leave for a few days and ya miss a boatload of movie news. So here's a quick summary of a few items worth noting:

- Yahoo! Movies has a trailer up for Slipstream, a time travel movie directed by and starring Anthony Hopkins. It looks interesting but I'll be damned if I can tell what the story is from the trailer. Maybe that's the point...

- It seems that Brett Ratner will be directing the remake of Escape from New York. Uh oh.

- Vin Diesel as the Terminator directed by McG? I suppose that half of that is good news... And sorry, I just wasn't in the mood to do one of those half Terminator/half Vin Diesel photoshop jobs that everyone else has attached to this story. :-)

Len Wiseman Confirmed As Escape From New York Director

It is being reported over at The Hollywood Reporter that Len Wiseman has been confirmed to be in the director's chair for the remake of the cult favorite Escape from New York. I like this choice. I enjoyed his Underworld films (that may have had a lot to do with Kate Beckinsale and her wardrobe choices) and Vic gave Die Hard 4.0 a favorable review here.

As a fan, I am of two minds on the idea of one of my favorite movies getting redone.