‘Escape From New York’ & ‘The Howling’ Getting Remakes At StudioCanal [CinemaCon]

This week, CinemaCon is in full swing in Las Vegas, and there are some updates on the long-gestating remake/reboot of John Carpenter‘s dystopian ticking-clock action film “Escape From New York” starring Kurt Russell. It was most recently at Disney/20th Century Studios before changing hands and moving on to StudioCanal.

The news picked up by outlets like Variety revealed the project’s announcement, but no further details on who is actually working on it. Radio Silence, the creatives behind the two “Scream” revival films and “Ready or Not,” had been tasked to help 20th Century’s latest iteration, but had since telegraphed their exit from the project a while back (they once referred to it as a “continuation”).

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That’s not it, as StudioCanal is also looking to do a remake of Joe Dante‘s werewolf horror movie “The Howling” and is developing the fourth “Paddington” movie. So, the studio has plenty of gestating projects to focus on for the future.

In “Escape From New York,” set in the distant year of 1997, Russell plays former war hero turned professional criminal and prison escape artist, Snake Plissken. After a heist gone wrong, he’s looking at being sent to a penal colony that just happens to be on Manhattan Island, and is given the chance by the fictional authoritarian government to rescue the U.S. president from the grasp of The Duke, the leader of the open citywide prison. Only one problem, they’ve injected him with a virus that will kill him after a certain amount of time, so he’s got to complete the rescue mission or die.

Released in 1981, the movie helped Carpenter (who co-created with writing pal Nick Castle) land bigger studio projects after previously delivering “Halloween” and pushed Russell, a former Disney child actor, into a tougher-guy persona. Countless films, TV shows, and video games like the “Metal Gear Solid” franchise were directly inspired by the movie (Carpenter successfully sued producer Luc Besson for his rip-off attempt called “Lockout” that was led by Aussie actor Guy Pearce, taking the main concept and placing it on a supermax prison space station). Interestingly enough, future box office champ James Cameron worked on the original film before he made his big directing debut with “Pirarah 2” and “The Terminator.”

Carpenter would do the near-carbon-copy sequel “Escape From L.A.” in the 1990s with Russell and had toyed with the idea of an off-world Snake Plissken installment that eventually morphed into “Ghost of Mars,” considered one of the director’s biggest misfires.

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Considering that “Escape From New York” has bounced around studios and creative teams for decades, we’ll have to be patient to see this remake come together, and it might be another “Highlander,” who knows? Despite years of calls for Wyatt Russell, Kurt’s son, to put the eyepatch on, they’ve both been pretty reluctant to talk about the merits of a reboot.