It appears that New Line Cinema is ready to put a charge into their planned remake of John Carpenter‘s classic, Escape From New York.

The studio has been trying to get the project in motion for a while now, but according to Vulture, they’re ready to move “quickly” on it after a new rewrite from Allan Loeb has them satisfied and raring to go…but with a few things toned down, it would seem.

The original Escape From New York is a futuristic alternate history story, set in a 1997 dystopian New York City at the end of World War III. Due to the unbelievable rise in crime, the entire island of Manhattan has been turned into a maximum-security prison. When the President is taken hostage by an extremist group, Police Commissioner Bob Haulk (played by Lee Van Cleef) makes a special offer to Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), a special forces soldier who turned to a life of crime: rescue the President within 24-hours, he will be given his complete freedom from the prison. What Plissken doesn’t know, is that if he fails or decides to try anything crazy, an explosive that was secretly injected into his body will be detonated.

One big thing to watch in all of this is what the he studio plans to change. Based on this report, a source close to the project states that the destruction to Manhattan will not be the same as it was in the original. Instead, the city will be clearly a dark and dangerous place, but still a very much intact penal colony.

Here’s what the source says:

Loeb has written a few well-known titles in the past. He wrote Things We Lost in the Fire and 21 before helping to get Oliver Stone’s sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps going strong.

No word on when we might see this new Escape From New York, but with things supposedly moving quickly, expect to hear more soon, including WHO they dare cast in the iconic role of Mr. Snake Plissken.