The good rumour today is that Brett Ratner has left the remake of Escape From New York, and any news that results in Hollywood turning away from a remake of such a classic film is good news in my book.

I wonder how long it will be before Gerard Butler announces he's off the project?

We first heard that Gerard Butler was going to play the iconic Snake, made famous by Kurt Russell who had a few negative words to say about the remake.

Then we heard that the remake was going to be directed by Len Wiseman, and that seemed an okay choice, not great since John Carpenter's Escape From New York shouldn't be remade anyway, but it was happening none the less.

Finally we heard that Len Wiseman was off and that Brett Ratner was on, and pretty much any glimmer of hope was out the window.

Now the rumour comes from a scooper to AICN through Rope of Silicon, that Ratner himself revealed that the film was happening but without him. Great news.

There's just no way that this can keep going in a positive direction, we've heard the Director's move down the talent line, and with Ratner off it has to drop another notch, so unless it reaches some extremely talented first timer who has unprecedented control over the studio, then it can only turn out one way, bad.