Personally I am not sure why they are remaking Escape from New York, I thought the original was rather dumb, but that is just me. However, there are a lot of fans of the film as it has certainly reached cult status and when New Line Cinema announced that Live Free or Die Hard and Underworld helmer Len Wiseman would be directing there was a dull moan that spanned the web. Well, there is only one way to turn that dull moan into a roar of upset and frustrated fans – replace Wiseman with Brett Ratner – and that is just what New Line has gone and done.
Ain’t It Cool News was the first to report the story, which has now been reportedly 100% confirmed by IESB saying that Wiseman is indeed off the picture and Ratner has replaced him. IESB also reports that the whole Gears of War movie has been scrapped, which Wiseman was also in the running to direct.
What happened to Len? The guy gets an 80% rating from the critics on Live Free or Die Hard, pulls in over $130 million and now gets tossed aside for Brett Ratner? Yikes, that has got to hurt.
As for Escape from New York neither site reported any start of production dates, but both sites have given the current script a positive review. Providing there aren’t any script changes I would think they would get moving as soon as possible. Gerard Butler is expected to take on the role of Snake Plissken, originally played by Kurt Russell in the John Carpenter classic.
