Plissken’s studio

Now that the smash success of 300 has catapulted star Gerard Butler into the A-list atmosphere, all the studios want to be part of his next flick. But New Line is the one who got the latest prize, Butler’s starring role as iconic antihero Snake Plissken in a redundant remake of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK.

The studio came out victorious in a bidding war for the planned sci-fi flick, which puts the brawny Scot in the role infamously embodied by Kurt Russell, that of a convicted ex-special forces soldier sent into a futuristic Manhattan prison to rescue the kidnapped president from Isaac Hayes. The remake comes from BLACK HAWK DOWN writer Ken Nolan and producer Neal Moritz, who is best known for excessively noisy and aggressive attempted entertainment like STEALTH, XXX and THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS. John “I’ll Cash That Check” Carpenter will exec produce. No director has been announced, but they’re surely lining up for the job already.

Personally I think Butler’s a fine match for the patch (if it’s absolutely necessary to reboot Snake, which it is not), but I’d much rather see him carry on the character as he’s coerced into an entirely new mission, rather than just actor-swapping him into a semi-retarded (it’s a Moritz movie, after all) retread of the original material. Butler was attached to play a gunslinging vampire-hunting holy man in PRIEST, but that no longer seems to be in the cards considering this latest news and his rumored involvement with WATCHMEN.