Zack Snyder is busy planning his Escape From New York remake and has now revealed his unique approach. Find those below.
Zack Snyder has had a busy week. He premiered his new film The Last Photograph at the Toronto International Film Festival, assured us he’s “not a fascist” following the reviews of that film and has now opened up about his upcoming remake of Escape From New York.
Snyder appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast (here via Bloody Disgusting) and got to talking about his new version of Snake Plissken’s adventures.
“The movie is going to be set in’97, from the perspective of 1981,” Snyder said. “I set the movie [in] the war between the United States Police Force and the elements, criminal elements. [It] takes place, I think, July 9th, 1981, which is the release date of the original movie … The rest is pretty much Escape from New York.”
His take seems to leaning on retrofuturism, then. But his remake won’t be shying away from politics either.
“Talk about a movie that’s the perfect combination of kitsch and camp. It’s all the things, that’s why I love it. But also, it’s [in] a way that’s satire and can get to us. We can make comments about government and all the overreach or whatever you want to call it, the People’s Liberation Front of America, all that stuff is very … That’s in the headlines. It’s quite current, in some ways.”
There’s no official word on who might offer a new take on one of Kurt Russell’s most loved roles as the gruff Snake Plissken, but Snyder did hint he “may” have someone in mind for the role already.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been very keen on the role and Snyder also revealed on the podcast that Morgan, best known for playing Negan on The Walking Dead or John Winchester in Supernatural, has been texting the director about the role.
A remake of John Carpenter’s 1981 sci-fi actioner has been in the works for years now, but the film has gained and lost several directors, but Snyder seems to be sticking, at least for now.
It’s still early days, we likely won’t see this new version of Escape From New York for a couple of years yet, but Snyder is clearly keen on making this. Fingers crossed this one will actually make it to the screen and Snyder’s version will retain the original’s feel.
