Originally pushed forward back in March of last year, some new news has surfaced regarding the planned Escape From New York trilogy of films to relaunch the classic 1982 property. Longtime producer Joel Silver, who used to be setup over at Warner Bros., acquired the rights last year after the planned New Line Pictures reboot fizzled out a few years back and they lost the rights to make them. Silver Pictures is set to give it a whole facelift with a new cast and obviously updated concepts around it to account for technological changes. According to the early reports, Silver’s going for a whole new take on it with plans to turn it into a trilogy, angling for the way the Rise of the Planet of the Apes feature did by starting before and going into the bigger material later on.
With Joel Silver out and about doing press for his latest film, Non-Stop, he had a few words that he shared with Collider about the project.
“There was a videogame that came out a few years ago called Arkham City, which shows how when Gotham became this kind of walled prison and how it became a walled prison. And they never deal with that in the story of Escape from New York, so part of our idea was to kind of see how the city became this walled prison and how the Snake Plissken character was a hero and how he became not looked at as a hero. And then, in the middle of the story, would be the movie that we, you know, previously saw about the President’s daughter goes down, he has to go in and get her. And then, you know, they did a sequel, Escape from LA, but I would like to then kind of find a way to have New York go back to a place that we’d like to see what it is today.”
Original concept: A thrilling landmark film that jolts along at a breakneck pace, Escape From New York leaped to cult status with high-octane action, edge-of-your-seat suspense and a mind-blowing vision of a lone warrior (Kurt Russell) battling his way out of a post-apocalyptic Manhattan! Hailed as “stylish and scary” (Los Angeles Times), “dark and dangerous” (Newsweek) and “gloriously…fun” (Tyler Morning Telegraph), this fast-paced and furiously entertaining thriller grabs you by the throat and won’t let go! In a world ravaged by crime, the entire island of Manhattan has been converted to a walled prison where brutal prisoners roam. But when the U.S. President (Donald Pleasence) crash-lands inside, only one man can bring him back: notorious outlaw and former Special Forces war hero Snake Plissken (Russell). But time is short: in 24 hours, an explosive device implanted in his neck will end Snake’s mission and his life unless he succeeds!
[Source: Collider]