Jonathan Mostow Talks About EFNY Remake [Fangoria/Sep/2009]


"Breaking out is impossible - breaking in is insane!" Welcome to New York in the far-flung future of 1997, where the Big Apple is a maximum security prison, the world of John Carpenter's cult classic, Escape From New York.

It's a weird time for John Carpenter fans, who haven't seen a movie from the Master of Horror in almost a decade. Carpenter's most celebrated creation, Michael Myers is onscreen now, barely recognizable in a Halloween II where he's a bearded giant without a mask or Carpenter theme song, taking marching orders from his dead mother like his rival, Jason Voorhees. Would anyone be surprised to hear that Escape was being sized up for a re-do?

Jonathan Mostow, director of the Bruce Willis/robot movie Surrogates, "did a rewrite on the remake of Escape From New York," he explains.

The project, until recently, was set to star 300's Gerard Butler as the new Snake Plissken. "I'm a big John Carpenter fan and love the original Escape," Mostow says. "Since it was made [in 1981], there's been an explosion in digital FX. This is the story that we think John Carpenter might have done if he made it today with modern technology.

"Carpenter's movie was cutting edge for it's time and it still holds up today. A filmmaker will come up with a different interpretation of the same story...a new spin on Snake's story. If you're gonna do an exact remake, why not just re-release the original Escape?"

Like Donald Pleasence's United States President, Mostow wound up taking an Escape Pod from the remake. Escape From New York was interesting, but I chose to do Surrogates instead. The chance to do an original movie is a rare thing in Hollywood right now. An Escape From New York remake could be fun and exciting, but I really wanted to make a new movie." Surrogates opens September 25th.