Radio Silence aka Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, have revealed they are no longer working on the Escape from New York requel.

Escape from New York Requel Suffers Another Setback

The pair were asked about the project in an interview. It was planned as a reboot/sequel (requel) of John Carpenter’s classic 1981 dystopian action-adventure movie. Now, 18 months on from being attached to the project, they admitted it was something they were unable to do now.

“We are not, unfortunately. I think titles like that bounce around for a while and I think they’ve tried to get that out of the blocks a few times. I think it’s just ultimately a tricky rights issue thing. There’s a clock on it and we just weren’t in a position to make the clock, ultimately. But who knows? I think, in hindsight, it feels crazy that we would think we would, post-Scream, step into a John Carpenter franchise. You never know. There’s still interest in it, and we’ve had a few conversations about it, but we’re not attached in any official capacity.”

While it’s unclear if the escape from New York requel is still in the works or not, it’s far from the first setback for it. Previous attempts have seen off Leigh Whannell, Robert Rodriguez, and Luther creator Neil Cross. Whannell was keen on Kurt Russell’s son Wyatt taking on the role of Snake Plissken.

The original 1981 John Carpenter classic was set in a dark future (then 1997) where Manhattan had been turned into an island-sized maximum-security prison. When the president of the United States crashes into the decaying city, an outlaw, Snake Plissken (played by Kurt Russell), is coerced into traveling inside to rescue him.