To be fair, Zack Snyder did deliver an entertaining remake of George Romero’s legendary zombies-at-the-mall tale Dawn of the Dead. But that was back in 2004. It was Snyder’s feature directorial debut, so it was before his name carried all the pop-culture baggage it has now. Before his grim takes on Superman and Batman (and the subsequent fan movement that became a real film, known as the “Snyder Cut”) and before his Rebel Moon films failed to rock Netflix in the manner intended. But can he reach back in time and recapture that same do-over magic that made his Dawn of the Dead so fun for a new Escape From New York?
This isn’t the first time Hollywood has threatened to remake John Carpenter’s gritty action cult classic; most recently, in 2022, Radio Silence was said to be circling the project.
The original was released in 1981 but is set in the dystopian future year of 1997 and imagines that the President of the United States (Halloween‘s Donald Pleasence) bails out of a hijacked plane over Manhattan, which is now a giant prison that covers the entire island. A slippery cop (Lee Van Cleef) tasks decorated-veteran-turned-outlaw Snake Plissken (an eyepatch-wearing Kurt Russell) with infiltrating NYC on a rescue mission, bringing our antihero into contact with a delightful and/or sleazy array of characters played by Ernest Borgnine, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau, and Isaac Hayes, among others.
So you can see from that cast alone how difficult a task any new Escape From New York has ahead of it—though that ’80s “fuck the POTUS, fuck the system” vibe has definitely come back around. Additionally, though there hasn’t been an official remake to date, the basic plot of Escape From New York has been replicated countless times, including (most notoriously) in 2012’s Lockout.
We don’t have many details on this latest Escape attempt, other than the Hollywood Reporter‘s update that Snyder is now aboard. The outlet’s sources said this is intended to be a theatrical release (not Netflix, like Rebel Moon, or HBO Max, like Zack Snyder’s Justice League) and that Snyder is planning to “write and direct a reimagining” of the original.
THR also writes that “it is known that Snyder aims to make a more down and dirty movie, using plenty of practical effects or locations like he did when he remade Dawn of the Dead as his feature debut, than something more overtly slick, such as his later superhero hits, including Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.”
We are very skeptical, but what do you think? Is the world ready for Zack Snyder’s Escape From New York? And who would you cast as Snake?
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
