John Carpenter Reportedly Approves ‘Escape From New York’ Remake Script

Filmmaker John Carpenter is no stranger to having his films get the remake treatment, with updated versions of Carrie, The Fog and Halloween all having hit theaters in recent years. The next project of his to be targetted for a remake is Escape From New York, which the film’s writer claims Carpenter has given his blessing to.

“Robert Rodriguez is attached to direct and it’s looking good and exciting. It was quite a challenging script, it’s a challenging thing to reinvent,” writer Neil Cross told Deadline. 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. You never quite know [if it’s done] but I might need to do some rewrites and do some nip and tuck but in the first approximation, my job is done.”

Getting the blessing from a filmmaker whose work you’re adapting must take a lot of stress off of a filmmaker’s mind, but Carpenter has revealed he has one big motivation when someone approaches him about attempting to craft a remake of one of his films.

“I love it, if they are going to pay me money,” Carpenter shared with The Guardian when asked about his thoughts on remakes. “If they pay me, it’s wonderful. If they don’t pay me, I don’t care. I think it’s unfair if they don’t pay me. I think everyone should pay me. Why not? I’m an old guy now and I need money. Send me money.”

Carpenter hasn’t directed a film since 2010’s The Ward, focusing more of his efforts on creating music. The filmmaker will play a more important role in an upcoming Halloween sequel, as he is serving as executive producer and potentially creating music for.

Danny McBride is co-writing that sequel with David Gordon Green, who will direct the film. According to McBride, Carpenter supports their vision for the sequel.

“The coolest part about that was going to John Carpenter and pitching him. If he didn’t like the take, it wouldn’t bode well,” McBride told IndieWire earlier this year. “He’s one of my biggest heroes. I think we were just so concerned about getting the job that we didn’t think about how f**king scary that was to go sit down in front of him to tell him how we’d continue the story he’d created. It wasn’t until afterward that I realized, ‘F**k, this could go so badly. We’ll be really hurt if he schools us right now.’”

Stay tuned for details about the upcoming Escape From New York remake.

[H/T Deadline]