The team known as Radio Silence will direct the film based on John Carpenter’s 1981 action classic at 20th Century Studios.
Snake Plissken is back in action. A reboot of John Carpenter’s 1981 action film “Escape From New York” is set up at 20th Century Studios with the directing team Radio Silence attached to direct, two individuals with knowledge of the project told IndieWire.
Radio Silence is made up of directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and Chad Villella. The team is best known for their work on “Ready or Not” and for directing the fifth “Scream” film (released earlier this year) as well as the upcoming “Scream 6,” which is slated for 2023. They’ll be partnering with Carpenter himself for the “Escape From New York” reboot, which has Carpenter serving as executive producer.
Radio Silence will produce alongside Alex Heineman and Andrew Rona for The Picture Company. A search for a screenwriter is underway, so naturally specifics on the plot are unknown.
“Escape From New York” is one of Carpenter’s cult classics starring Kurt Russell as an eye-patch wearing, gun-toting badass and convicted bank robber who in a dystopian 1997 is given 24 hours to to break into New York City, now a maximum security prison. His mission? To rescue the president of the United States after the commander in chief’s plane crash lands in the city and he goes missing. Carpenter and Russell later returned for a 1996 sequel: “Escape From L.A.”
“Escape From New York” is in the Studiocanal library, and the company will retain distribution rights to the film in some international territories. Studiocanal also has an overall deal with The Picture Company.
Like most studios, 20th Century is mining its IP for new (or, at least, new-ish) spinoffs and reboots of classic properties; see the recent success of the “Predator” prequel “Prey” on Hulu. The company is also working on new entries in the “Planet of the Apes” and “Alien” franchises. Radio Silence in particular has proven more than capable of reviving a franchise. The new “Scream” and its self-aware “lega-sequel” packaging did particularly well at the box office, reuniting the original franchise cast with new talent to fantastic effect. The film brought in $140 million worldwide this January.
Steve Asbell and J.R. Young are overseeing the new “Escape from New York” for the studio. Radio Silence is represented by UTA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
Deadline first reported the news.
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