Escape From New York: Radio Silence Exits Reboot – Comic Book Movies & Superhero Movie News

Abigail directs Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin from Radio silence have confirmed that they are no longer directing the John Carpenter film reboot Escape from New York.

“That’s unfortunately not the case,” Gillett said in response to a question from ComicBook.com about the status of the Escape prequel. “I think stocks like that have been bouncing around for a while and I think they’ve tried to get them out of the blocks a few times. I think ultimately it’s just a tricky question of rights. There’s a clock on it and we just weren’t able to keep to it, ultimately. But who knows? I think in hindsight it seems crazy that we would think, after Scream, going into a John Carpenter franchise. We never know. There’s still interest in it and we’ve had a few conversations about it, but we’re not attached to it in any official capacity.

Released in 1981, Escape From New York starred Kurt Russell as futuristic outlaw Snake Plissken who is enlisted by the police to infiltrate a Manhattan supermax prison in order to save the US president. A sleeper hit at the time of its release, Escape enjoyed growing popularity on home video and cable throughout the 1980s. A commercially unsuccessful sequel, Escape from LA, was released in 1996 reuniting Russell and director Carpenter. Additionally, the film spawned two comic book lines from CrossGen in 2003 and BOOM! Workshops in 2014.

Failed attempts to remake Escape From New York

Prior to Radio Silence’s involvement, efforts to revive Escape From New York began and have been stalled since 2007. New Line Cinema initially held the remake rights with directors including Len Wiseman and Brett Ratner. When their remake plans fell through, the rights were sold to Fox. In 2017, Robert Rodriguez signed on to the project with Carpenter attached to produce. Despite scripts written by Leigh Whannell and Neil Cross, the project never progressed further with Rodriguez.

While the future of the Escape reboot remains in limbo, one thing that’s certain is that Wyatt Russell, son of the original star, has no plans to step into Snake Plissken’s shoes. “Even though it’s very nice, it’s not going to happen,” Russell told Esquire. “There will be no Snake reboot from me, it’s like career suicide 101. It’s like what not to do. I don’t know if anyone else could be Snake Plissken. Good luck, go get them, I sincerely wish you good luck. I just don’t know how that’s possible. And for me, if I really wanted people to send me hateful messages, I think that’s what I should do. I will never do something like that.