According to The Hollywood Reporter action specialist Len Wiseman, who directed the highly successful Live Free or Die Hard, is in final negotiations with New Line Cinema to helm a remake of John Carpenter's 1981 cult classic Escape From New York. 

Ken Nolan, who wrote Black Hawk Down, is penning the script, which combines an origin story for Snake (a former Special Forces Officer with 2 Purple Hearts) with the basic plot of the 1981 movie. Gerard Butler, who starred in the hugely popular adaptation of Frank Miller's 300, has signed to portray Snake Plissken in the new movie.

Snake Plissken has returned before, most notably in the 1996 movie Escape From L.A.  He's also been a comic book hero.  Marvel released a The Adventures of Snake Plissken one-shot in 1997, while Hurricane Entertainment put out a four-part John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles mini-series in 2003 (two of the issues were released by CrossGen, two by Hurricane itself, and the collection by Alias, see 'Alias to Release Snake Plissken Chronicles').