Yet another studio is apparently trying to remake John Carpenter's Escape From New York. According to Deadline, Fox has successfully bid on the rights to the franchise, and while it's still in the very early stages of development, John Carpenter is supposed to be coming on as an executive producer who will "exert creative influence" over the project. Unsurprisingly, it's described as an attempt at a franchise — the 1981 original spawned a coolly-received sequel, a novelization, and a new comics series, but this is described as a completely new reboot.

Escape From New York has been passed around Hollywood for the last several years. New Line Cinema originally bought the rights for a remake, but it passed to Joel Silver's Silver Pictures in 2013. Last year, rumors suggested that Silver Pictures was still working on the project, naming Sons of Anarchy's Charlie Hunnam, Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens, and The Walking Dead's Jon Bernthal as potential leads. Deadline says sources have dismissed these rumors, saying there's not even a script for the film yet, and the team is "starting from scratch."

The original film, set in a dystopian 1997 Manhattan, starred Kurt Russell as special forces veteran Snake Plissken, who is sent onto the island to rescue the president and a tape that could start World War III. Besides Russell, it boasted a strong cast of supporting actors, including Ernest Borgnine, Adrienne Barbeau, Harry Dean Stanton, Bond villain Donald Pleasence, and musician Isaac Hayes. After so many false starts, though, who knows if Fox will even get as far as casting a new Snake.