Breck Eisner, I Thought You'd Be Taller

John Carpenter's 1981 blockbuster 'Escape From New York' has been on the remake radar for a few years now; most recently'300's' Gerard Butler was nigh-on signed up as the man to fill Snake Plissken's cowboy boots. But, somewhere along the line things stalled and it looked like the project was dead in the water. Now it's been announced that Breck Eisner has picked up the reins of the New Line/Warner Bros. produced remake. Eisner's debut was the mega-flop 'Sahara', which was notoriously steeped in legal wranglings and production troubles. Early this year he redeemed himself with the remake of George Romero's 'The Crazies', which pulled in good numbers off of a low budget. Eisner is the son of former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, so I'm sure that doesn't hurt either. Anyway, nepotistic sarcasm aside, he's a reliable hand, but he's still one Snake short of a go picture, whether the presence of this new director will restore Butler's faith in the project - he reportedly left over 'creative differences' - remains to be seen. Carpenter's original was a delightfully dark-witted, anti-establishment genre classic, that had a grim, dry attitude unlike many other motion pictures of the time. It created an icon out of former child star Kurt Russell, and led to a somewhat wobbly sequel in 1996 with 'Escape From L.A.' (Admittedly a guilty pleasure of mine.) Carpenter and Russell were keen to do a third and final film called 'Escape From Earth', but unfortunately the lacklustre box-office of L.A. stalled this intriguingly titled picture. As is in vogue, this fresh start will also tell the 'origin' story of Snake Plissken, who was, prior to the bank robbery that sees him arrested at N.Y.'s start, a war hero. 'Black Hawk Down' writer Ken Nolan has had a crack at the script, along with 'The Invasion's' David Kajganich and 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleep's' Allan Loeb. Previously attached directors including Len 'Underworld' Wiseman, Johnathan 'Terminator 3' Mostow and - allegedly - Brett 'X-Men 3' Ratner have had their paws on the project, with Eisner reportedly using Loeb's draft as his starting point. With this and the imminent remake/prequel of 'The Thing' it seems that old Carpenter/Russell projects seem to be the flavour of the month; hopefully they'll leave 'Big Trouble in Little China' well and truly alone, because you can't improve upon perfection. Meanwhile Carpenter has his first feature film in nine years (and hopefully his first good film in fourteen) due for release in the autumn, 'The Ward'. Whilst the original Snake, Kurt Russell seems to be on hiatus since Tarantino's 'Death Proof' back in 2007.