Fans of John Carpenter's 1981 classic dystopian action flick Escape From New York– which introduced the world to one of the screen's coolest antiheroes, Snake Plissken – know how often plans for a remake have been kicked around for the past decade, the most recent being New Line's involvement, with Breck Eisner (who helmed the remake of George Romero's The Crazies) in line to direct, and A-listers like Gerard Butler and Tom Hardy in talks for the role of the one-eyed mercenary, memorably played by Kurt Russell in the original. As you also might know, that deal eventually fell through... but according to a breaking story from Deadline.com, the option has been picked up by producer Joel Silver, with his company Silver Pictures partnering with Studio Canal to kick off the franchise at last.
The same production partners produced the Liam Neeson action films Unknown and Non-Stop, and Neeson has now joined candidates Butler, Hardy and Jeremy Renner to possibly fill Snake's boots. Silver intends to develop the story into a trilogy, including a Plissken origin story (something only hinted at in the original). Deadline reports that Studio Canal will finance development of the project before placing it with a studio, and a writer search is underway.