Silver Pictures has cut a deal with rights holder StudioCanal to produce a reboot of Escape From New York.

The project had been set up at New Line with Breck Eisner in line to direct. Gerald Butler was among the contenders to play Snake Plissken, originally portrayed by Kurt Russell in John Carpenter’s 1981 cult classic [pictured].

While the original film centred on a bank robber sent into a dystopian Manhattan to rescue the President, Silver plans a new take on the material in the form of a trilogy.

Studio Canal will finance development before announcing a studio distributor.

Silver and Andrew Rona will produce through Silver Pictures and Silver Pictures evp Alex Heineman will serve as executive producer. The producers are out to writers. 

Studio Canal financed Silver Pictures’ Unknown as well as the upcoming Liam Neeson thriller Non-Stop and Sean Penn’s Prone Gunman, which is gearing up for a June start. 

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