The grimy, dystopian setting of the prison scape that is Manhattan was born in the aptly titled 1981 film, Escape From New York. The glinting metal giants of New York that stand as behemoths engulfing the skies over the artsy, corporate capital of Western civilization were reimagined as the bars of the heavily fortified maximum security prison that defined the landscape of the John Carpenter film. Now standing as a definitive cult classic edifice, Escape From New York asks to be born again in the modern world of gore and horror.
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John Carpenter’s Escape From New York Gets a Reboot
The trio of filmmakers who constitute the Radio Silence collective has recently announced that the 1981 Kurt Russell film, Escape From New York will be next in their roster of projects subjected to reboot. Comprised of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and Chad Villella, Radio Silence will direct and produce the reboot under the supervision of Steve Asbell and J.R. Young of the 20th Century Studios. The Picture Company will contribute to the production of the reboot while Studiocanal holds distribution rights to the film.
So far, no lead actor or writer has been announced for Escape From New York and considering the stringent regulations of the MPAA in recent years, it is unclear to what extent the reboot will serve to imitate the original John Carpenter film. However, the Radio Silence filmmaking trio has been known for its expertise in the genres of horror, sci-fi, and adventure thrillers. As far as directing a classic horror is concerned, the 1981 film couldn’t have fallen into better hands.
Kurt Russell’s Legacy as Snake Plissken in 1981 Classic
The sensational one-eyed Snake Plissken who sauntered over to the 80s screens as a modernist antihero left behind a legacy that couldn’t be matched in the subsequent sequel and spin-off projects to Escape From New York. The attempts to reboot the original failed majestically and in the decade that followed, Hollywood stepped out of its gory slasher era to a golden age of fantasy epics and superhero adventures. 40 years later, the cyclical return of the past continues in the recently rebooted Escape From New York which will also witness the 1981 film’s original writer and director, John Carpenter, returning as an executive producer.
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In the mid-1970s, the unprecedented, inflammatory political scandal that rocked the American landscape and forced Nixon out of office provided the fundamental inspiration for Carpenter’s film. The Kurt Russell movie went on to amass $25.2 million against its $6 million budget becoming an instant critical and commercial success, and over time gained a reputation of a definitive cult classic due to its unsavory portrayal of unchecked violence, bleak future, and gory deaths.
The starkly dystopian film, influenced in part by Brian Garfield’s Death Wish (1972), will be a massive undertaking by Radio Silence. A reinvention of the R-rated classic will be a tribute to the 1981 metaphor of societal horror that manages to remain still relevant to this day.
Source: Deadline
