Screen Rant » escape from new york

Escape From New York Remake News Keeps Getting Worse

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:00:06 +0000

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.

Ratner is most well known for his Rush Hour movies, which according to Rotten Tomatoes started out not so great with each subsequent one getting worse. He’s also the guy who stepped in at the eleventh hour to direct X-Men 3, the weakest film in the trilogy.

Then came word that oops, no, Ratner is not directing Escape From New York.

Now comes word that Gerard Butler (King Leonidas in 300), who was tapped to take on Kurt Russell’s iconic Snake Plissken character has bowed out of the movie. He is citing “creative differences.” My question is, if there is currently no director attached to the movie, with whom does he have “differences?” I suppose it must be an issue with the screenplay, written by Ken Nolan (who was the writer of Black Hawk Down).

So now they’re bringing in Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) to write and possibly direct, however this begs the question: Did Butler leave because he didn’t like the original screenplay or the concept pitched for the re-write? The timeline here is confusing… if he didn’t like the original but New Line wanted him in it, you’d think they’d say “Hang on a second, we’re bringing in a new writer.” Or was Butler OK with the first script and it was the re-write that he didn’t like?

Either way, I’d say this isn’t looking good right now.

Sources: FirstShowing.net & Variety

Movie News Grab Bag

Vic Holtreman — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 15:46:12 +0000

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.

- The Heartbreak Kid is getting killed at the box office and by critics. It got it’s butt kicked by Disney’s The Game which is in it’s second week. As of right now it’s scoring about 30% positive over at Rotten Tomatoes. It’s from the same guys who brought us There’s Something About Mary, and no, the critics aren’t being high-brow on this: The latter scores 80% over at RT.

- The trailer for Sweeny Todd starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter is out. Call me a killjoy but I predict box office doom for this one, even if it turns out to be interesting. There was one brief scene in the trailer that indicated to me this might turn out to be a musical, which is the kiss of death for a modern movie. Audiences just don’t buy the concept any more.

- George Lucas says that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (yeesh, I had to look that title up because I can’t even remember it) will be as good as Raiders of the Lost Ark. Hey George, I think we’ll be the judge (cough, Phantom Menace, cough) of that.

- Pixar doing a CGI version of John Carter of Mars? Where do I sign up?

- The Thor movie as it is currently written would cost $300 million, and Marvel wants director Matthew Vaughn to trim half of that from the budget. Hmm… maybe they can just reuse styrofoam cups for coffee instead of getting a new cup every time? That should do it.

- Serenity 2? I doubt it, although I absolutely loved Serenity.

Len Wiseman Confirmed As Escape From New York Director

Shane — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:49:11 +0000

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.

In my heart, Kurt Russell forever wears an eye-patch, mullet, and multiple days growth of a beard. I have always hoped they would do the rumored Escape from Earth storyline with Kurt in his signature role. That being said, if they have to recast the role of Snake Plissken, Gerard Butler is a pretty good choice. He was awesome as Leonidas in 300 and I enjoyed him as the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera. I think he is a rising star right now and his name attached to any project creates some interest for me.

John Carpenter has directed some of my favorite cult movies, The Thing (itself a remake), Big Trouble in Little China, Escape from New York, and They Live. Unfortunately, he has also directed some real stinkers. I don’t think he is a director whose movies shouldn’t be remade, he isn’t exactly Hitchcock or Spielberg. Len Wiseman, although fairly new to the director scene, has shown that he can put out a good action flick. Plus, John Carpenter will be involved and is said to be producing the remake. This sounds like it could be really good if handled right.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter