New Escape From New York & The Howling Remakes Announced

During StudioCanal’s presentation at CinemaCon, the company announced it will partner with The Picture Company to develop a reimagining of John Carpenter’s Escape from New York. Additionally, StudioCanal is also developing a reimagining of Joe Dante’s classic werewolf flick, The Howling.

The company revealed the news at the annual trade convention CinemaCon which kicked off today in Las Vegas.

The original film’s story is set in a future where the U.S. had become a totalitarian theocratic police state, and the island of Manhattan is now a walled-off maximum security prison.

Imprisoned former Special Forces officer Robert ‘Snake’ Plissken (Kurt Russell) has twenty-four hours to go in, rescue the U.S. President who is being held by the city prison’s most dangerous crook, and get out again.

No further information was revealed about the project. Numerous attempts to remake the property have taken place over the years with the likes of Radio Silence, Leigh Whannell, Robert Rodriguez, and “Luther” creator Neil Cross all involved at differnt points.

Although I’ve never been interested in a reboot of Escape from New York, because I'm a huge fan of the original I will admit that I’m quite curious to see a reimagining of The Howling. The first film is still awesome, but the sequels in my opinion were a chop. I’d love to see a good old-fashioned werewolf flick again, with (hopefully) practical effects ala the Frank Grillo film Werewolves, but… I’m not going to get my hopes up.

The 1981 movie starred Dee Wallace as a newswoman who, after an encounter with a serial killer, is sent to a remote mountain resort whose residents may not be what they seem. Together with An American Werewolf in London, also released in 1981, the film gave us some of the best werewolf effects ever seen.