In today’s culture, where it seems like every movie ever made gets a reboot soon after, it’s hard to believe it’s taken the 1981 sci-fi action adventure Escape From New York this long to get tapped.
Deadline reports that Sin City and From Dusk Till Dawn director Robert Rodriguez will direct the John Carpenter classic and early indications are that 20th Century Fox plans to turn it into a franchise. Carpenter is also expected to executive produce the film, while Neil Cross, creator of the British crime series Luther, will write the script.
The original, set in near future 1997, starred Kurt Russell as an ex-soldier who has 24 hours to find the U.S. President and rescue him from crime-ridden Manhattan Island, which has been turned into a maximum security prison.
No word yet on whether Russell will reprise his role as eye patch-wearing protagonist Snake Plissken, but the story is certainly set up for a kickass action remake.