"300" Star Butler to Star in "Escape from New York" Remake
The critical response to "300" has been divided, but that hasn’t stopped moviegoers from turning out to see it en masse — which means this is a pretty good time for "300" star Gerard Butler to announce his next project. Snake Plissken fans, rejoice: Butler has signed on to do a remake of John Carpenter’s 1981 classic, "Escape from New York."
The original, as you very well might recall, takes place in a dystopian future in which crime has become such a problem that the entire island of Manhattan has been converted into a maximum-security prison; when the president’s plane crashes on the island, he’s taken captive by the prisoners, and the one-eyed anti-hero Snake Plikssen — played with career-defining panache by Kurt Russell — has 22 hours to rescue him. The film was a hit, so of course it spawned a sequel, 1996’s "Escape from L.A.," which no one will remake, ever.
The movie doesn’t have a studio attached yet — it’s being shopped by Butler’s agents at CAA — but Neal Moritz is set to produce, and Ken Nolan has agreed to write the screenplay; Russell, presumably, is waiting to hear whether Butler has any interest in putting a fresh coat of paint on his 1992 masterpiece, "Captain Ron."
Source: Variety
