Snake Plissken? I Thought You Were Dead? Oh, you are!

Yep, rejoice Carpenter fans… the “Escape from New York” remake is
kaput. For the time being. New Line and Warner Bros have opted not to
push forward with their long-in-development relaunch of the Snake
Plissken character (played by Kurt Russell in the original and it’s
*cough* shitty sequel *cough*), letting the option lapse on the
property. What this means, of course, is that another studio might
decide to pick up the option. But for the moment, no need to sob into a
bucket of overpriced, oversalty popcorn as Chace Crawford dances about
Manhattan island with an eye-patch and a CGI Donald Pleasence
(Actually, Jeremy Renner and Gerard Butler were oft-rumoured for the
part of Snake).

Deadline, who have the scoop on New Line’s discarding of the
project (which everyone from Brett Ratner to Breck Eisner have been
attached as director), says no actor had been locked down for the role
of the one-eyed vigilnate. That’s good news, if you ask me, because it
might possibly suggest that nobody fits Snake but… Kurt Russell. And
maybe, just maybe, another studio will smarten to the idea that a new
“New York” sequel, with Russell back as Snake, might work just as well
if not better than a reboot.