Zack Snyder Reveals First Story Details on the ‘Escape from New York’ Remake: ‘He Has to Look Like Snake, or I Walk’

Director Zack Snyder has revealed the first story details about his remake of “Escape from New York”, John Carpenter’s 1981 action cult classic. In an interview for the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, the director spoke for the first time about how he plans to bring one of the genre’s most iconic films back to life. The remake project was announced earlier this year; StudioCanal is producing it, John Carpenter himself will serve as executive producer, and the film is intended for a theatrical release.

Snyder explained that the film “is going to be set in ’97, from the perspective of 1981”. He added: “I set the film in the war between the United States Police Force and criminal elements. [It] happens, I think, on July 9, 1981, which is the original film’s release date … The rest is pretty much ‘Escape from New York’.”

For the original, the director had only words of praise: he called it “the perfect combination of kitsch and camp” and said the film’s satire lets him comment on government overreach — a topic “quite current, in some ways”, according to him.

As for the cast, Snyder declined to reveal who will step into Snake Plissken’s boots. Asked whether he already has an actor in mind for the role, he replied: “I may”; pressed further on whether it’s someone he has worked with before, he refused to answer: “I’m not going to say.” Still, he stressed his loyalty to the character’s look: “He has to look like Snake, or I walk.” Meanwhile, “The Walking Dead” star Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who worked with Snyder on “Watchmen”, has publicly lobbied for the role — Snyder admitted “he’s been coming at me constantly”, calling him “the best”, but did not confirm the casting.

The 1981 original starred Kurt Russell as former soldier turned convict Snake Plissken, who has only 24 hours to rescue the U.S. president from Manhattan, transformed into a giant maximum-security prison. The remake has been stuck in “development hell” for nearly two decades — names like Robert Rodriguez, Radio Silence, Len Wiseman and Gerard Butler were attached to it at various points. Snyder’s latest film, “The Last Photograph”, premiered at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival.

Source: Bloody Disgusting