After their success reviving the Scream franchise earlier this year, the filmmakers known collectively as Radio Silence were reported to be developing a new take on John Carpenter’s Escape from New York. The filmmakers recently addressed those reports, seemingly confirming that such a project is in the works, yet they confessed that it’s very early in the process and that there isn’t yet a script for the update on the Kurt Russell-starring adventure. As they have more recently been working on Scream VI, it sounds as though a new take on the concept likely won’t be moving forward until sometime next year.
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Radio Silence’s Chad Villella confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that the project was in “very, very early stages.”
“We’re very excited to be working with 20th Century on that,” he added. “We’re developing our take, and hopefully, it will be going to script sometime in the New Year, and just really starting to lay the groundwork for that. But very early stages.”
The 1981 film earned the 1996 sequel Escape from L.A., which featured the return of both Russell and director Carpenter, though with how much time has passed since that movie, fans have wondered if a new film could be a continuation of that narrative or if a new film would be starting from scratch and reimagining the source material. Tyler Gillett clarified that the new film will not be a remake.
“Not a remake,” Gillett admitted. “That’s one of those properties that you can’t [remake], it’s sort of untouchable to us, and lives in its own stratosphere in terms of how important it is to us, and how much we love it. So it’ll be not unlike Scream, I think, a nod to, and a continuation of, what we love about those characters and that world.”
The world of the film is full of potential, which even included Carpenter himself toying with the idea earlier in his career of taking the Snake Plissken character on an intergalactic adventure.
The franchise is a coveted property, with filmmakers such as Robert Rodriguez and Leigh Whannell also being reported to have been developing a new take on the material over the years, though after proving their talents on this year’s Scream, fans will surely be hoping this new take on the material will help revive the dormant concept. Early reports even claimed that Carpenter himself was attached to serve as an executive producer.
Stay tuned for details on a new Escape from New York.
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