Production Weekly, which is always spreading good rumors, is now indicating that Jeremy Renner could star as Snake Plissken in the upcoming Escape from New York remake. For the longest time, Josh Brolin was the man people could or wanted to see in the film. Timothy Olyphant was also a possible candidate.

Apparently there is only an offer out to the actor at this time, and it wasn’t clear if he would accept the role. Renner is very touted as of late with a job in Mission Impossible 4, The Avengers, Hansel and Gretal: Witch Hunters, and some others. It’s noted that the movie will start filming in the first quarter of 2011. Renner could feasibly shoot this project before The Avengers starts filming, where he will portray Hawkeye. Although a clear production start date for The Avengers hasn’t been given yet and with their recent budget troubles, it may be pushed back a small bit, but that is doubtful.

Breck Eisner is directing Escape from New York from a script by Allan Loeb. Escape from New York comes to theaters in 2012.

Back in April it was reported that The Crazies director, Breck Eisner would be directing the remake of Escape from New York. Now it seems he may want to cast his Crazies star, Timothy Olyphant as Snake Plissken.

MovieWeb reports via their interview with Eisner that he has considered the possibility of re-teaming with Timothy Olyphan to play Snake Plissken.

“I love working with Timothy Olyphant and I will be working with him again. He is an amazing actor. A talented guy. And he’s incredibly funny. He needs to do a great comedy, because he is a funny guy. But I will work with him again. I can promise you that. Creatively, he would be great for it. We have not yet discussed internally within the studio who will play Snake Plissken. There are many factors that go into those discussions. First and foremost, obviously, is the creative one. We can’t make the movie unless we get the perfect Snake Plissken, and that’s a tall order. There are very few guys that could do it. He would definitely be one of the guys who could. There is no question about that.”

I am not sure I am sold on Olyphant though he is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors. I loved him Live Free Die Hard, I love him even more in his series Justified. I think the best guy for the role is Josh Brolin. He was rumored a while ago and he can do all the things Eisner says above but with slightly more conviction.

The film plans to be more of a Snake Plissken origin story combined with some of the elements from the John Carpenter original version. Vulture said the script “nailed the humor in Plissken without slipping into camp, and he changed Snake’s rescue-mission target from a president to a female senator, thereby upping the banter quotient.”

All this was in our report on the Vulture’s script review back in February which also revealed that New York will be a lot different. Well Breck Eisner talked about how all these differences still harness what the original was about but will resonate with audiences in today’s society.

Eisner explains his vision for the film to ComingSoon saying:

“Conceptually, it’s an idea that’s not true today because of the world we live in. So, how the prison is created is going to be different than in Carpenter’s version. The anxiety of the world and anxiety of our existence post-9/11 is there, especially the anxiety in Manhattan post-9/11. Plot-wise, they’re different, emotionally they’re very similar. That’s why it’ll be interesting to tackle this movie, to have a slightly different take but with the same results which is Manhattan is turned into a walled prison.”

Its been quite sometime we have heard anything about this project but it seems NY Mags’ Vulture site has got the goods. The movie just received a rewrite from Allan Loeb, the man who rescued the Wall Street 2 sequel from development hell over at Fox.

The site reports that Loeb hit on all 3 cylinders to make the movie the studio wanted. Cheaper, non-campy, different mission for different type of movie.

“Loeb nailed the humor in Plissken without slipping into camp, and he changed Snake’s rescue-mission target from a president to a female senator, thereby upping the banter quotient. But just as big a factor was economic: They found a much cheaper way to turn Manhattan into a giant prison.”

The plan to make Manhattan different and economic on camera is that it “will be geographically undesirable, but intact…This means New York will still be recognizable to audiences, à la I Am Legend, rather than an entirely new Armageddon Island.”

One of the things that will not change, however, is the Snake Plissken character. Apparently New Line signed a deal with the original Escape From New York director John Carpenter, which stated specific things that could not be changed:

“Plissken ‘must be called ‘Snake’; ‘must wear an eye patch’; and that he would – and we’re not making this up – “always be a ‘bad-ass.”

The movie also plans to feature non-police, Blackwater type security dudes, since privatization is the word, that Plissken will not doubt go all crazy on in the movie. We plan to keep you posted on the development of the film but so far I have no complaints. Last we heard too, the role of Plissken, was being looked at by Josh Brolin.

The movie revolves around the island, which is now fenced off and used as a Maximum Security Prison, housing some of the most ruthless criminals ever. It is like this because the US crime rate increased 400%. When the President of the United States and Air Force One is hi-jacked and crashed into the island, the President survives but not before he is taken by the inhabitants of the island prison.

The prison security forces are unable to obtain the President and are commanded to leave the island by the underground faction of criminals or they will kill him. Now the only hope for the forces is to enlist the help of legendary special forces operative and fugitive, Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell).

With the threat of WWIII and the Soviet Union still in existence, the President’s survival is imminent, being that he is carrying important information and documents on nuclear fusion.

The movie was originally written in the mid-70s by Carpenter as a result of the Watergate Scandal but due to his inability to articulate the reference, no studio wanted it. That was until, Carpenter finished Halloween. The film was also inspired by the movie, Death Wish. The movie, though it takes place in Manhattan, was not filmed there at all. It was actually filmed entirely in St. Louis, MO.

The film had a great box-office take, after only costing $7 million to make, the movie grabbed $50 million globally. [Source: BoxOffice Mojo]

The movie did get a sequel, Escape From L.A. that was considered a box-office bust, a complete turnaround from the original which has a good reception.

There has been news of a remake, with Gerard Butler being attached to the film and New Line acquiring the rights to the film. Since then Butler has bowed out of the remake and with no director announced not much is known about the remake if in fact it is a remake or prequel. However, we reported that Josh Brolin was rumored to play the new Snake Plissken.

Directed by: John Carpenter
Produced by: Larry J. Franco, Debra Hill
Written by: John Carpenter & Nick Castle
Starring: Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau, Season Hubley, Tom Atkins
Music by: John Carpenter & Alan Howarth
Distributed by: AVCO Embassy Pictures
Release date: July 10, 1981
Running Time: 99 minutes
Followed by: Escape from L.A. (1996)

This is certainly rumor at this point and it seems this movie has been talked about for sometime with guys like Brett Ratner and Len Wiseman pegged to direct, all of which are out now, (Thank God!). Apparently Gerard Butler was pegged for the role of Snake too (That would have been cool with me).

I am highly against them remaking this movie simply because that movie was a staple film and it will seemingly saturate it, besides the new one won’t nearly be as good. Why not do I new film with Carpenter and Russell, where Snake is old and stuff – it worked for Indy! Oh wait that was a failure. I guess MajorXero and I are going to have to hunker down and write some treatments and bring some originality back to Hollywood.