Escape From New York Remake Gets New Writer With Leigh Whannell

According to The Hollywood Reporter, writer Leigh Whannell (Saw, Upgrade, Insidious) has closed a deal to write a script for a planned remake of the classic John Carpenter film, Escape From New York. He’s already attached to write and direct The Invisible Man for Universal Pictures.

Currently, there’s no deal for Whannell to direct the remake. However, the report indicates that the door is open for that possibility. Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman are producing the film, and Carpenter is attached as an executive producer.

The original film was set in the then-future of 1997 where Manhattan had been turned into a closed off, isolated maximum security prison. When the President of the United States crash lands into the city, the outlaw Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is then sent into New York to rescue the president and a valuable tape he was carrying.

The report indicates that Whannell’s new vision for the remake plans to retain elements of the original and bring new ideas to the table. Also, Whannell hopes to avoid the penchant for remakes to be bloated tentpoles that’s been seen in recent updates of classic action films such as RoboCop and Total Recall.

Previously, Neil Cross wrote the latest version of the script when Robert Rodriguez was attached to direct it. Hollywood has been kicking around a remake of the classic film for years, but there’s been no luck getting it off the ground so far. At one point, Gerard Butler was even a favorite to take over the role of Snake Plissken. It remains to be seen if this version will fare any better.

The original 1981 film also saw its own sequel, Escape From LA, which was released in 1996. Kurt Russell reprised the role of Snake, and John Carpenter returned to write and direct the film.