Wait, Didn't Zack Snyder Already Remake Escape From New York Five Years Ago?

Zack Snyder has just been confirmed as the director of the Escape from New York remake – but it feels like he already made his version for Netflix years ago. While it’s far from the first John Carpenter movie touted for a reboot, Escape from New York is easily the one that has been trapped in development the longest.

It was first announced as a star vehicle for Gerard Butler back in 2007, when he was hot off the success of 300. Over the years, actors like Timothy Olyphant, Dan Stevens and Jon Bernthal have been linked to the Snake Plissken role, while Robert Rodriguez and Radio Silence have circled as directors. There have been many iterations of Escape from New York Redux, but none have moved ahead.

In the time since the remake was confirmed, other Carpenter classics like Halloween and The Thing have been remade instead. That said, with Zack Snyder signing on to remake Escape from New York, the odds are real strong that Snake will finally escape from development hell.

It’s true that Zack Snyder’s movies tend to be divisive, but he has a keen visual eye, and whether his gambles pay off or not, he at least makes bold choices. He should be a good fit for this new take on Carpenter’s sci-fi actioner, but with Army of the Dead, he essentially made the same movie already.

Zack Snyder Kinda Remade Escape From New York Already With Army Of The Dead

2021’s Army of the Dead was Snyder’s follow-up to Justice League, and saw him letting his hair down after the fraught production of his final DCU outing. It also saw him return to his roots, as he first broke out as the director behind 2004’s Dawn of the Dead. Army… followed Dave Bautista’s cynical former war hero Scott as he and his team sneak into the walled-off city of Vegas to steal a fortune.

They need to move fast, as they have mere hours before the government plans to nuke the zombie-infested metropolis. If that premise sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because it’s not far off Escape from New York, where Kurt Russell’s Snake also has a strict deadline to sneak into the walled-off prison of Manhattan to rescue the kidnapped U.S. President.

Of course, the specifics of the two are quite different. For instance, EfNY is post-apocalyptic, and Snake is largely on his own, instead of having a reliable team around him. These similarities aren’t a mistake either, as Snyder – who penned the story and co-wrote the screenplay – has openly acknowledged Escape from New York’s influence on his zombie opus.

Both movies end with the heroes racing against time as the warlords who rule these walled sandboxes give chase, while Snake and Scott’s allies all sacrifice themselves to save him at different points. The blueprint is all over this Netflix original, so since Snyder has (sort of) made his remake already, the question is how will Snyder’s EfNY differentiate itself from both the original and his Netflix offering?

Zack Snyder Can Take These Lessons From Army Of The Dead Into Escape From New York

There is an argument that Dawn of the Dead is Snyder’s best film, thanks to James Gunn’s tight script and its modest budget. It forced Snyder to tell a lean and mean story, as opposed to the more bloated blockbusters of recent years like his Rebel Moon duology. Army of the Dead was one of the director’s most purely enjoyable efforts of recent years, but there are some notes he should take into his next project.

Before Kurt Russell was cast, Charles Bronson and Tommy Lee Jones were both considered for Snake Plissken in the original movie.

For one, AofD should have been about 90-100 minutes max, but at 150 mins, it’s too baggy. This extra bloat slows down its momentum, and also sees Snyder indulge in his habit of setting up sequels and spinoffs that didn’t happen – outside of the tepidly received prequel Army of Thieves, that is.

Finally, Army of the Dead’s ending is darker than it needed to be for something set up as a fun combination of the heist and zombie genres. For Escape from New York, Snyder must tap into what made Carpenter’s original so great. It must move like a racehorse through a unique, fleshed-out world, while the new Snake needs to be somewhat near as badass as Kurt Russell’s version. Not an easy task, but Snyder might just pull it off.