Gears & Escape Director Named?

By Jon Condit
August 4th, 2007

I really don’t know how I feel about this. You never know with some directors these days, but can Len Wiseman refrain from making another Underworld?

IESB is reporting that Wiseman may be up for both the Escape From New York remake and the Gears of War adaptation, both for New Line Cinema. Now, War has a built-in storyline that doesn’t really need a whole lot of work, if you ask me. The game is about running around and killing things, so I don’t see it requiring a lot of finesse.

Escape From New York, on the other hand ... well, that’s pretty much dangerous ground for anyone but Carpenter, really; it’s yet another movie that doesn’t need a remake because the original is so damn good, and something tells me Wiseman just doesn’t have what it takes to make it different enough to stand on its own.

But then, who knows. Apparently most were pretty happy with what he did with Live Free or Die Hard, which I’ve not seen yet unfortunately, so maybe he’s maturing. I did think the second Underworld was a lot better than the first, but that was mainly because it had more action and less lovey dovey shit.

And, of course, it’s still just a rumor right now so it all may be moot...

- Johnny Butane