By AI Creative Media

A remake to the 1981 dystopian action classic “Escape from New York” has been circulating in Hollywood for almost 10 years, and now it’s finally found a director. Deadline reports today that Robert Rodriguez is set to direct the remake for 20th Century Fox, which picked up the rights to remake the flick two years ago.

The original 1981 John Carpenter film has become a cult classic since its release. It was followed by a sequel in 1996, Escape from L.A., also by director Carpenter. Kurt Russell starred in both films as Snake Plissken, a convicted former Special Forces soldier conscripted to rescue the President, who has been captured by prisoners after Air Force One crashed in Manhattan, which has been turned into a giant maximum-security prison.

The news seems like a vote of confidence for Rodriguez, who just directed Alita: Battle Angel for the same studio. A frequent collaborator of Quentin Tarantino, Rodriguez hasn’t directed a feature since 2014’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, but has been heavily involved his own cable television channel, El Rey since its launch in December 2013.

John Carpenter is also executive producing the reboot, with Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman’s The Picture Company from a screenplay by Neil Cross, creator of the BBC crime series “Luther.”