Tom Hardy Was Being Courted To Play Snake Plissken
A bullet has been dodged, at least for now. New Line has decided that maybe remaking John Carpenter‘s “Escape From New York” isn’t such a good idea after all.
The project has certainly had a colorful history. Over the years, Len Wiseman, Brett Ratner, Jonathan Mostow, Gerard Butler and Josh Brolin have all been rumored as potential directors and stars, but it seemed to gain steam last year when Breck “Dreck” Eisner (“Sahara,” “The Crazies“) signed on with Allan Loeb (“The Switch,” “The Dilemma“) and Jamie Moss (“X-Men: First Class“) to write the screenplay. The project even seemed to have a stamp of approval of sorts from Carpenter himself, who snagged a producer credit and signed a contract stipulating the film’s protagonist, Snake Plissken, must “always be a badass.” Last fall, casting rumors (that later turned out to be false) swirled around Jeremy Renner as a possible lead and then…nothing.
Well, apparently there was an attempt to court Warner Bros. go-to guy Tom Hardy for the lead but it would appear that any momentum that was happening behind the project fizzled out and New Line decided to scrap it. That’s not to say another studio can’t pick it up and start the whole process going again — studio heads love the smell of a potential franchise — but the track record of Carpenter remakes leaves quite a lot of bodies in its wake. “Halloween,” “The Fog” and “Assault on Precinct 13” all paled considerably to the originals and the forthcoming “The Thing” looks like it will continue that trend.
So breathe a sign of relief folks for at least for one moment, cooler heads have prevailed in Hollywood. [Deadline]
