Movies
‘Crazies’ Director to ‘Escape From New York’
Snake Plissken is determined to make it back into theaters, and thankfully New Line Cinema is also committed. It was announced today that Breck Eisner (who I thought did a great job with The Crazies remake) is in talks to direct the redo of Escape From New York. New Line has been developing the revamp of John Carpenter’s 1981 original for several years. Gerard Butler had been attached to star as Snake Plissken in 2007, but is said to have officially left over creative differences. Carpenter’s original followed antihero Plissken (played by Kurt Russell) as he tries to save the President in gang-ruled Manhattan. The script for the new version has been penned by Ken Nolan, David Kajganich and Allan Loeb, who wrote the most recent draft. The new spin follows along the lines of the original in which Plissken — an iconic soldier-turned-criminal — is given 24 hours to find the President following the crash of Air Force One.
Neon is hitting the road this summer with Gen Z horror hangout movie It Ends.
The feature debut by writer-director Alex Ullom will officially arrive in theaters on August 21.
In It Ends, “Four recent college grads on a night time drive find themselves stuck on a road that sprawls on forever, with seemingly no end in sight. They are occasionally attacked by stragglers and have to find a routine to plan their rest stops, but after a few thousand miles it all feels the same. Still, they keep on driving, only in the belief something better will come eventually.“
Starring in the film are:
- Akira Jackson as Day
- Phinehas Yoon as James
- Mitchell Cole as Tyler
- Noah Toth as Fisher
“This was always a movie that was more about how we live with horror than about the actual horror. I make this joke too much, but I always wanted to see the family in Hereditary give a postgame interview and just be like, ‘Yeah, that was terrifying. That was absolutely terrifying.’ Then, they all die, obviously, but like they go about their lives. The movie is constantly recontextualizing the things that happen in it,” Ullom previously told BD of his existential horror film.
It Ends premiered at SXSW earlier last year and went on to win Best First Feature at the Fantasia International Film Festival.
I wrote in my review, “It Ends captures a universal fear, that anxiety-inducing transition into full-blown adulthood where we’re all expected to become responsible contributors to society. It’s a lot of pressure with no clear guide. As such, it runs through every emotion that comes with that journey.”
Ullom is already a filmmaker to watch; the newcomer has already been tapped to helm 4 X 4: The Event, which is described as Battle Royale meets Saw meets Climax.