Producer Neal Moritz has come to the Cannes Film Festival with some interesting news: he's going to produce a remake of Renny Harlin's 1993 altitude rush Cliffhanger, and also a re-boot of action classic Escape From New York. Gallic company StudioCanal will be teaming with Neil Mortiz's Original Films in producing the projects. More recently, Moritz is credited for producing the new Fast and Furious movie.
"Just as they did with Star Trek, we're going to do the same with Cliffhanger," Moritz said of the remake which will involve younger climbers. It is also worth noting that this new Cliffhanger will have "multiple cliff face locations," as opposed the 1993 film's singular use of the Colorado Rockies.
Cliffhanger is looking for a screenwriter.
The new Escape from New York already has a set budget of 80 million, and will be made through Warner Bros., New Line, and Studio Canal.
I would argue that Escape is a bit more of a classic than Cliffhanger, considering the icon the previous made of character Snake Plissken. And with Sly Stallone's dangling off the sides of mountains ... not so much. To be fair to John Lithgow, the "3rd Rock from the Sun" overshadows Stallone when it comes to memorability with that film. Though the first scene of Cliffhanger is still pretty darn intense...
Source: Variety