Zack Snyder Has Been Hired To Ruin John Carpenter’s Best Sci-Fi Movie

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 14 seconds ago

You know how it’s possible to turn Bucky Barnes back into the Winter Soldier by repeating a few gibberish words in the right order? I used to think that this was the kind of stuff of film fantasy. After all, how could just a few words send an intelligent man into an utterly mindless frenzy? However, this is exactly what happened to me yesterday. Nobody had to repeat gibberish to me; I simply had to read the absolute worst news of the year: Zack Snyder will be rebooting John Carpenter’s Escape From New York.

The original Escape From New York is a singular classic, one that comfortably straddles the line between action epic and dystopian horror. It’s the movie that transformed leading man Kurt Russell into a convincing action hero, all while proving that horror maestro Carpenter would never be tied down to a single genre. Unfortunately, this masterpiece is now being rebooted by the guy who helped destroy the DCEU. On many levels, Snyder is the absolute worst guy to be handling this project, and now all fans of the original movie can do is sit back in dread as the Batman v. Superman director prepares to ruin another franchise.

Somehow, New York Returned

Recently, The Hollywood Reporter exclusively reported that an Escape From New York reboot will be directed by Zack Snyder, the man best known for tights-and-flights films like Watchmen and Justice League. The film will be produced by Picture Company partners Alex Heineman and Andrew Rona, thanks to the deal they made with StudioCanal. That studio and original director John Carpenter own the rights to this particular property. Carpenter will serve as an executive producer on this new film, and Snyder will also produce through his Stone Quarry production company.

If all of this is giving you a keen sense of deja vu, that’s because there has been talk of rebooting Escape From New York for many, many years. At one point, New Line Cinema had the rights to the IP and considered handing the reins to several very different directors, including Breck Eisner, Len Wiseman, and (deep shudder) Brett Ratner. When 20th Century Fox owned the rights, they wanted Robert Rodriguez to direct. Later, Radio Silence (who brought us Ready or Not and the recent Scream movies) had the rights, but they never got as far as naming an intended director.

Zack The World

So far, I’ve got a very bad feeling about StudioCanal’s Escape From New York reboot. The only really notable film this studio made with Picture Company was Gunpowder Milkshake, a good-but-not-great attempt at turning the John Wick formula into a girl-power ensemble piece. As for Zack Snyder, his recent track record is pretty bad. The first Rebel Moon movie currently has a 22 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and the second one has an abysmal 16 percent. The director’s cuts fared mildly better, but it’s not a good sign when a director repeatedly needs two attempts to make a half-decent film.

Plus, Snyder is the man most responsible for the failure of the DCEU. While the director has his fans and his Justice League was much better than Whedon’s (a very small hurdle to clear), his earlier movies like Man of Steel and especially Batman v. Superman established this cinematic universe filled with colorful superheroes as a grimy, grimdark kind of place. Later movies like The Suicide Squad and even The Flash tried to reverse course, but it was too late: as it turns out, making multiple movies aimed squarely at angry little edgelords is one of the best ways to alienate mainstream audiences, and the DCEU eventually died with a whimper.

No Franchise Is Safe 

Will Zack Snyder ruin yet another franchise when he directs the Escape From New York reboot? Maybe not: THR reports that “Snyder aims to make a more down and dirty movie, using plenty of practical effects or locations” more akin to his Dawn of the Dead reboot than his “slick” DCEU movies. Dawn remains Snyder’s best film, and an Escape film in that vein could be very thrilling. But considering that he went from ruining DC’s first cinematic universe to releasing three aggressively disappointing movies direct to streaming, you probably shouldn’t hold your breath that this will be anything other than another shameless vanity project that will be forgotten as soon as it’s released.