Escape From New York Remake Script Receives John Carpenter's Seal Of Approval
The script for the upcoming Escape from New York remake has received a coveted thumbs up from the original movie's director—and the screenwriter for the project couldn't be more relieved.
Neil Cross, the creator of the Idris Elba-starring Luther and writer of the reboot's screenplay, shared the news of Carpenter's approval of his work in an interview with Deadline.
"It was quite a challenging script, it's a challenging thing to reinvent," Cross said. "One of the most terrifying sentences I've ever heard in my life is 'we've given the script to John Carpenter'. I crawled around for three days thinking 'oh my god' but we got John Carpenter's seal of approval. He approved it and that's all I need."
The movie is slated to be directed by Robert Rodriguez, a longtime fan of the original movie and the filmmaker behind such action fare as Sin City, El Mariachi, Desperado and From Dusk Til Dawn.
According to Cross, the screenplay for the reboot is essentially finished, but there's no word yet on a potential production start date, let alone a release date.
"I might need to do some rewrites and do some nip and tuck," said Cross. "But in the first approximation, my job is done."
The original Escape from New York was released in July 1981, and starred Kurt Russell in the role of Snake Plissken. Carpenter co-wrote the screenplay with Nick Castle, who portrayed Michael Myers in Carpenter's Halloween, and also co-composed the movie's score with longtime collaborator Alan Howarth.
A sequel, Escape from L.A., was released 15 years later in 1996, also directed by Carpenter and starring Russell. There's no word yet on whether or not Russell will be reprising his role as an older Plissken in the remake, or if the role will be recast with a younger actor.
While Carpenter's thumbs-up doesn't have much of an effect on the movie itself, it is a good sign for fans of the cult classic original who may have been giving this version the side-eye. Audiences have already been subjected to a bad version of Escape from New York in the movie's belated sequel, and the idea that Carpenter approves of Cross' vision for the remake's story should make fans optimistic that the new version will at least have some heart to it.
Escape from New York isn't the only Carpenter remake on the docket, with Danny McBride and David Gordon Green also preparing a remake of Halloween for release in 2018, the pitch for which Carpenter has had much praise for.
Carpenter recently wrapped up a live concert tour of the US and Canada, playing many of the most well-known compositions from his movies in a kind of musical career retrospective. He also provided a song for the new season of Stranger Things.
Apparently, Carpenter is kicking around the idea of doing the music for the Halloween remake, and considering the emphasis he's been putting on his musical career of late, he's clearly got compositions to go around. If he decided to do a synthesizer song or two for the Escape from New York reboot, it would be a pretty cool way to pass the baton—not to mention a sickeningly sweet way to keep the story's 1980s bona fides in play.