The saga of the studios’ attempt to bring a new version of John Carpenter’s cult classic **Escape From New York is one littered with rejected scripts, unused casting ideas and different companies taking an interest. 20th Century Fox took charge back in January and is now pinning its hopes on Luther writer Neil Cross to deliver a script{
Having passed through the likes of New Line, the remake’s position at Fox is evidence that the studio is hoping to turn this one into a new franchise, much in the way that the Planet Of The Apes films sprang back into life with Rise and continued to stonking effect with Dawn.
Exactly what spin Cross will be putting on the story remains to be seen: the dystopian future action original, which Carpenter wrote with Nick Castle, starred Kurt Russell as the iconic one-eyed anti-hero Snake Plissken, coerced into venturing within the boundaries of Manhattan (now a maximum security prison) to rescue the president of the United States from a downed plane.
Carpenter will be creatively involved in this version and has an executive producer title, though he hasn’t specified exactly what the extent of his control will be. Cross, who wrote the screenplay for Mama and did some re-write work on Pacific Rim, has also been doing drafts of a new Day Of The Triffids. But his main focus of late has been shepherding more Luther to TV screens, with Idris Elba back as the tough copper on an as-yet unspecified date this autumn.