So news broke that the Escape From New York remake — yes, it is still happening — now has a writer in the form of Luther creator Neil Cross. Luther is clearly awesome, so this is great news to hear. He apparently bested quite a few writers to get the gig and the remake would make only his third foray into the world of film, according to The Hollywood Reporter, having previously worked on Mama and Pacific Rim:
Neil Cross, the acclaimed creator of the BBC crime series Luther, has been tapped to pen Escape from New York, 20th Century Fox’s remake of the 1980s cult classic…
The studio is aiming high with this one, hoping to relaunch the property as it did with its Planet of the Apes movie series, which became a critical and commercial hit.
Carpenter is creatively involved and is exec-producing. The rights originally came from StudioCanal. Mike Ireland is overseeing for the studio.
Now this news is cool enough by itself, but it makes me instantly go to more Idris Elba dream casting. If there’s anybody with enough presence to take the place of Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken, it’s Elba. And sure, he’s been connected to James Bond in more ways than one, but he’s apparently too street for that role. But guess what? He’s not too street to play Snake.
Give Idris Elba the role. Give him the patch. Give him the cigarettes. And let him beat ass in a way that he doesn’t have to slick up and bow to the Queen. Snake doesn’t have to bow to anybody.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
