Home Entertainment Joel Silver talks about the ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK reboot – Trilogy, character and history

Joel Silver talks about the ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK reboot – Trilogy, character and history

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If there’s one remake that I’m actually more than happy to see made, it’s Escape From New York. Now before you get your pitchforks out, bear with me. As cool as the film was, it has aged horribly. And the less said about Escape From LA, the better. A remake will eventually be made. And producer Joel Silver has a few ideas about it.

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The Matrix producer spoke to Collider recently, explaining his vision for the reboot which would set up a whole new trilogy of films. Giving Snake more of a backstory would be the first film itself, while his actual escape from New York would be told in the first sequel.

First of all though, a script would be needed for these proposed films, something which Silver says hasn’t been completed yet:

No, no we’re not, no we’re not. I mean, it’s funny because we have a relationship with Studio Canal, which somehow ended up with the rights to that, and it has been floating around LA or at least in the development world for a long time.

Then, Silver explained that Snake would have a touch more character, as well as some video game influences in these new movies:

I always liked Kurt’s character, the Snake Plissken character, so I’ve always like that idea, but we kind of figured out a way to do almost a trilogy of that story.

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 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.

So when is the damn movie going to start some form of production? Not anytime soon:

So there is a way to tell the story in three ways, but we haven’t got there yet and we’re just starting.

I’m keen for more Escape from New York. Bring on the reboot already, because you’ve got my attention and cash already Silver.

Last Updated: February 11, 2014

One Comment

  1. James Francis

    February 11, 2014 at 12:44

    This sounds terrible. I agree that a remake of the original would be cool, but giving Snake a back story? That is exactly as smart as giving Clint Eastwood’s man with no name a back story. There is a mythos around these characters, one that is usually ruined once you try and put a history behind them.

    Barry Ronge once said that Pliskin is the modern day cowboy, the shadowy stranger who rides into town and dispenses much-needed justice. Origin stories are overrated – just ask Star Wars ep. 1 to 3. Nobody gave a shit about Snake’s background when he first emerged and nobody still gives a shit. We just like Snake. Who cares how Manhattan became a prison? FFS, they are going to make the first movie, it will flop and we’ll never see the sequel that is supposed to be the actual remake.

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