The on-again off-again saga of the Escape From New York remake appears to be on once again:

http://io9.com/get-ready-escape-from-new-york-is-going-to-be-remade-b-1679396764

Granted, this remake of the original 1981 John Carpenter directed cult film in the very early stages with no “names” attached, though it is my understanding John Carpenter will serve as a producer (though I could be very wrong, I get the impression he won’t be all that involved in this new film other than lending his name to that particular role).

As for the new film…frankly I don’t know.  Way back in 1981 when the original was released, I really liked the concept but wound up loving parts of the movie more than the entirety of the product.  There were moments of sheer brilliance and, given the very low budget, Mr. Carpenter and company had, they did an excellent job creating something that looked a hell of a lot bigger than it actually was.  And Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken?  Easily one of his all time best roles (to me a little better than the great roles he had in Carpenter’s The Thing and Big Trouble In Little China).

The problem with the film was that somewhere toward the middle of it that low budget started to show and, to my eyes, hurt the overall product.  I hadn’t mentioned it before but there is also one specific part in the film, immediately after the baseball-bat gladiatorial match, that from a writing standpoint sticks out like a sore thumb.  For those who haven’t seen the film, Plissken is captured by the bad guys and forced into a gladiatorial match against a very fierce and imposing opponent.  He is not expected to survive the match but somehow does.  Almost immediately after the match is over, all those villains surrounding him abruptly leave the arena (there is other skullduggery afoot) and essentially forget all about their captive, which allows him to escape from their clutches.  Though the scene is handled reasonably well, it is a weak point in the film.  If the bad guys wanted Plissken dead, why not put a bullet in his head immediately after the match was over?

Regardless, I have a soft spot for the original movie and I don’t know if remaking it is such a good idea (it was already done, btw, with Carpenter and Russell with very diminished results as Escape From L.A.).  I’ve also been annoyed that a truly good BluRay version of the movie is not available as of yet.  True you can get a good “bells and whistles” version on DVD, but I really want to see the film in HD…

…but yesterday, just before finding out about the remake, I discovered this:

https://www.shoutfactory.com/film/action-adventure/escape-from-new-york-collector-s-edition

The release is scheduled for April.  I guess it’s time to pre-order!