It has been nearly two years since it was announced that 20th Century Fox would be producing a remake of John Carpenter’s classic film ‘Escape from New York‘. Since then, the studio has been playing their cards pretty close to the vest, having announced little more than that the script will be written by ‘Luther’ creator Neil Cross.

Now, however, The Wrap has obtained a number of alleged plot details from the upcoming film. Most of the information matches the sort of thing we’ve come to expect from remakes of this nature. Some of it, if true, is enough to make you wonder if anyone involved ever watched the original film. But I repeat myself.

It’s worth noting that at no point is a source cited in this article, not even attributing the information to “anonymous sources”. So it’s likely best to take all of this with a grain or two of salt. With that said, let’s dive in and see what we’re dealing with. According to The Wrap, the following will all be part and parcel of the ‘Escape from New York’ remake:

  • We will know Snake Plissken by his real name: Robert
  • The film features an original villain: Thomas Newton, “the playboy heir to an agrochemical and biotech corporation”.
  • The lee Van Cleef Role will be played by a woman.
  • New York City will not be a maximum security prison, but rather something of a gated community, for want of a better word. Gonzales describes it thusly: “Manhattan is the island we know, but with more towering glass structures and a high, undulating glass wall. The sky is alive with drones as serene as bees and artificial intelligence controls all in the form of an enthincally ambiguous, cheery young woman called April. A small staff of technicians and researchers known as ‘Seers’ monitor all.”
  • The film will open with a scene cut from the original, set outside of the United States and depicting Plissken’s initial apprehension.
  • The film depicts a global dystopia in which one in seventy-five people is a refugee or otherwise displaced.
  • A hurricane, dubbed Superstorm Ellery, will be approaching New York.
  • Snake has eleven hours – half the time available in the original – to complete his mission and bring Newton in alive.
  • Newton has a device known as “Fat Boy” available as a failsafe. Gonzalez doesn’t specify Fat Boy’s exact nature, except to describe it as “an ominous, dull metal sphere about the size of a car, in a nest of conduits and cabling”, but the allusion to the atomic bombs dropped on Japan (nicknamed Little Boy and Fat Man) is inescapable.

What do you think of these rumored plot points? What do you hope to see in the final film? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to check back with ScienceFiction.com for more news on the ‘Escape from New York’ remake as it becomes available.