Snake Plissken, who has escaped from both New York and Los Angeles, is looking to get out of Gotham for a second time.

According to Variety, producer Neal Moritz and screenwriter Ken Nolan are looking to remake John Carpenter's 1981 cult classic "Escape From New York," starring "Timeline" and "The Phantom of the Opera" leading man Gerard Butler.

Of course, if those box office disappointments -- or "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life" or "Dear Frankie" or "Reign of Fire" -- were Butler's only credits, he wouldn't be the centerpiece of any new blockbuster remakes. However, Butler's most recent credit is a leading role in "300," which had a whopping $70 million opening last weekend.

Suddenly, studios are reportedly battling to give Butler the chance to step into Kurt Russell's mullet as Snake Plissken, a one-eyed convict who dares to infiltrate Manhattan -- a maximum security prison in Carpenter's dystopic future -- to rescue the waylaid President of the United States.

If the "Escape From New York" remake strikes a chord, the filmmakers can move on to Carpenter's somewhat less successful 1996 sequel "Escape to L.A."

What a bad idea.

Some movies should be left alone and not remade

Escape from New York is a classic

New Line has won the bidding war for a remake of Escape From New York, with 300 star Gerard Butler attached and Neal Moritz producing through his Original Films.

Black Hawk Down screenwriter Ken Nolan is attached to write the script. Executive producers include Original's Ori Marmur; Ron Halpern and Frederic Sichler of Canal Plus, which held the remake rights; and John Carpenter, who directed the 1981 original.

Butler would portray Snake Plissken, the convict and war hero who's sent into a futuristic New York City -- which has been turned into a giant maximum security prison -- to rescue the president of the U.S. after his plane is knocked down by terrorists. The original was set in 1998.

Kurt Russell played Plissken in the original film and again in Carpenter's 1996 sequel Escape From Los Angeles.

They shouild get Russell to play the Duke of New York!

:lol: