LOS ANGELES, June 6 -- The island has been waiting forty-five years for someone to break back in. On Sunday, StudioCanal confirmed it has found that person.

Zack Snyder, the director whose sweeping visual grammar helped define the modern superhero film, is set to write and direct a reimagining of Escape from New York, the 1981 John Carpenter cult classic that introduced the world to S.D. "Snake" Plissken. Deadline confirmed the project on June 1, with Snyder simultaneously attached as a producer alongside Stone Quarry partners Deborah Snyder and Wesley Coller.

The Picture Company's Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman will produce through their overall deal with StudioCanal, the French studio that co-controls the underlying rights to the prope...