News Up To End Of Feb 2004

Feb 24th 2004

Nope, The Thing 2 Isn't Happening

Well, at least if it is, JC isn't involved. I guess we all expected as much (the original article seemed to be using an out-of-context quote from wayback. I remember before the game came out JC said that if it was a success then maybe it could get The Thing 2 greenlit and he had a cracking idea. The new article seems to have changed the tense to make it seem like JC was sayig after the game was released, as if it was a done deal). Anyway, ginger jabba had the info at www.aint-it-cool-news.com (he phoned up JC directly, bas**** :-).

Ok, so that's what I got. Then I called up John to see what he was up to. Turns out that the story is COMPLETELY FALSE. John is not directing THE THING 2. There is no THE THING 2 with him doing it. He told me that the last thing he heard was that Universal was looking to make a SCI FI CHANNEL Miniseries - and apparently he wasn't doing anything on that. So what is John up to? Oh, he's playing around with a few things, but nothing that he's ready to start talking about yet. So let it be known, this THING 2 rumor is total bollocks!

New JC Documentary DVD

I put up a link to Barnes & Noble on my last update for you to buy this new documentary about JC. To temp you further here is a summary of the disc:

** Here's some infos about this upcoming DVD on the career of John Carpenter: John Carpenter, 60 min., Image, Street: 3/23/2004 16x9 - 1.78:1 - Color - English - 5.0 Dolby Digital, Stereo - Region 1. One of the great maverick directors of the past three decades, John Carpenter changed the face of horror and action with a string of worldwide smash hits. A true renaissance man of the silver screen, he often writes, produces and scores his films as well and has proven himself with over 35 films. From his breakthrough classic, HALLOWEEN (one of the most successful independent features of all time), to such audience favorites as ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, THE THING, ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, THEY LIVE, PRINCE OF DARKNESS and many more, the whole story is covered in this fascinating documentary. Featuring interviews with Jamie Lee Curtis, Kurt Russell, Peter Fonda, Debra Hill, Alice Cooper, Adrienne Barbeau, Stacey Keach and many more!

Thanks to Mr V G for that one.

Feb 19th 2004

The Thing 2 a reality??

Way back when "the thing" computer game was launched JC was quoted as saying that there was a chance that if the game was successful the green light might be given to a sequel. He had an idea (possibly even a script) but was sure they wouldn't let him direct, probably get Micheal Bay in or someone. Anyway, I have had a stack of emails recently pointing out the following links:
CountingDown.com
Cinescape Story

Which, of course, I hope are all true! Lets wait and see and keep our fingers crossed. It has also been reported on Fox News.

AOP13 Remake

This remake is picking up steam - I am not sure what JCs involvement is but lets hope it just gives us a cool modern take on a classic film. Thanks to Wampa Dan for this quote

From the Hollywood Reporter.Com
By Borys Kit
Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne are set to star in "Assault on Precinct 13," Focus Features' remake of the 1976 John Carpenter film. French filmmaker Jean-Francois Richet will be making his American directing debut on the project, being produced by Stephane Sperry's Liaisons Films and Outlaw Pictures' Jeffrey Silver.
The new version, written by James DeMonaco, is set in the present day in a police precinct building that is about to be shut down. During a snowy New Year's Eve, a mobster (Fishburne) is temporarily incarcerated at Precinct 13, the soon-to-close police station. As the sun sets and a long night begins, a motley crew of policemen and prisoners reluctantly captained by a cop (Hawke) must band together to fight off a rogue gang that wants to free the mobster.
Why Not's Pascal Caucheteux developed the project and is co-producing. Amy Kaufman and Elizabeth Dreyer are overseeing for Focus. The project will begin shooting in April.

New JC Documentary DVD

Wampa Dan also provided me with this link to Barnes and Noble, giving you the info and somewhere to order a new 60min documentary about JC.

Dec 12th 2003

John Carpenter and Franka Potente

German TV recently showed a bit of a documentary where JC met Franka Potente. Kessler Tobias was kind enough to send me a summary of the show:

John Carpenter takes out Franka Potente (the star of Run Lola Run, a great film) for a night in Los Angles - they eat, they talk, they walk across a graveyard and even look for a toilet seat. Carpenter talks about universal fears and the reception of his films in the USA where, in his opinion, horror is looked upon with the same disregard as porn. He also mentions that he has many friends under horror directors. For him they are the most friendly persons he can think of because "they can get their demons out". Some scenes from "Halloween" and "The Thing" are shown - Potente states that she owns the DVD of "The Thing". During the night they decide to visit Hans Zimmer in their studio where he is putting finishing touches on "Pirates Of The Carribean". They shake hands and Zimmer states that "Assault" for him is the most memorable film score ever. An interesting and funny documentary - Potente comes across as a bit sometimes naive but Carpenter is very friendly and says "Oh, interesting" many times. The best bit comes when Carpenter walks across the graveyard and asks himself whether his career might be buried there somewhere.

Escape From New York Special Edition DVD

Finally, we get the special edition of this classic JC movie and it has more than enough special stuff on there. Of probably most interest is the deleted scene, referred to as the original opening reel by JC on the disc. This now legendary scene gave us some Snake Plissken background, showing him rob a bank, escape on a US wide subway system and ultimately get caught. This would then be followed by the NY scenes which now open the theatrical cut of the movie.
There were some original rumours that this scene would be reinstated in the movie so we could theoretically watch the entire "directors cut" of the film but I never really thought this would happen, principally because there is never a superiour "directors cut" of a JC film as he always gets final cut (especially on his earlier "low budget" films). I think an additional reason is the quality of the image which just isn't up to the digitally remastered main movie.
The deleted scene is interesting but I agree with JC about it being cut (apparently the primary reason for it being cut was test audiences disliking it) in that it does soften the Plissken character. In the EFNY we all know and love he doesn't have a reason or moral baggage - he is the ultimate embodiment of the man with no name who comes out of nowhere. This backstory shows a softer side to Snake (he could get away from being caught but goes back to help is friend) that gives him a more human undertone that I think takes away some of the superiour cynicism in EFNY. That said, it is great to finally see it, and JC has added a "new" score to it that he hopes is in keeping and along the lines of what he would probably have put on it for a full release.
The DVD also has two superb commentaries, one reteaming JC with Kurt Russell. Anyone who has enjoyed the The Thing JC/Russell commentary will love this one. Sometimes commentaries can be dry, technical affairs but JC and Russell are obviously having fun and giving us very interesting anecdotes about the filming.
The whole thing comes ina lovely 2-disc gatefold with a bonus DVD sized edition of the Snake Plissken Chronicles comic, which may just be for marketing to get you to buy the rest of the comic, but I love it. You just have to get this DVD of one of the coolest films of all time. I got mine through play.com who always give me good service. I got the R1 version, no word yet on when the R2 is coming out. Now I am desperate for that Christine special edition.
www.play.com EFNY R1 page
DVDFile.com review

November 21st 2003

Assault on Precinct 13 Soundtrack Released

This is great news, finally we can get our hands on an official AOP13 release thanks the French label Record Makers. There are some soundtracks out there calling themselves AOP13 but these are either bootlegs (some even are the music of AOP13 played by other people) or the official release calling itself AOP13 which is actually a best of whith 4 or 5 AOP13 tracks on it. You can get it from amazon uk or just generally have a look around the web to try and source from your favourite place.

November 20th 2003

Snake Plissken Messes With The Man .... Again

Seems like Snake is up to his old tricks and causing controversy on his dealings with a US president. This time its a combination of a wicked storyline in Snake Plissken Chronicles and some delayed timing which means that Snake gets to practically re-enact the Kennedy shootings on the anniversary of his death. Nice one Snake. Here is the full press release from Hurricane Comics and a sneak preview of some of the issue 3 pages that have caused the controversy. I know I have said it before, but you really owe it to yourself to get a hold of this comic series.

JFK ASSASSINATION CONTROVERSY SLITHERS AROUND SNAKE
November 19, 2003 - Studio City, Ca: Hurricane Entertainment, the publishers of JOHN CARPENTERS SNAKE PLISSKEN CHRONICLES find themselves in a snake pit of controversy. "The central plot of the first story arc revolves around Snake stealing the Lincoln Continental that President John F. Kennedy was shot in." Said writer William O'Neill. "In issue #3 we have what I hope is a humorous reenactment of the assassination. Very dark, very tongue in cheek."
"We have had some people comment on the story and its timing." Stated Jan Utstein-O'Neill, Publisher for Hurricane. "Because of the shake up at CrossGen, issue number three's ship date had to be pushed back. It will now be hitting store shelves shortly after the 40th anniversary of the real Kennedy assassination. The timing was not intentional in any way to coincide with actual event. If we have offended anyone, we are sorry, for that was not our intent. That being said, we have no plans on changing the story."
Artist Tone Rodriguez chimed in "Kennedy was before my time, so I don't have the emotional response that some people do. I was surprised to see people's reactions when we showed the pages to Snake fans at the recent Las Vegas Comic Con."
O'Neill was less apologetic. "Snake Plissken is a character who shakes things up. He is irreverent to all sacred cows, left, right, up or down. We tried to inject the book with a dark sense of humor. But like a friend of mine use to say, '#$@% 'em if they can't take a joke."
JOHN CARPENTER'S SNAKE PLISSKEN CHRONICLES #3 of a 4-issue story arc, is due to ship to stores on December 3rd from Hurricane Entertainment. www.HurricaneC.com

Snake Plissken Issue #3 Preview

I guess you could see why that particular shot might cause a bit of controversy.......

Full issue #3 pages:
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13

November 13th 2003

John Carpenter Movie Retrospective in Spain

I email you to inform that the Filmoteca Española is showing during November, the complete filmography of John Carpenter on a great retrospective

- from Fernando José Martínez Gómez

The Thing: Who Goes There? RPG

Download: T & M Bazaar. Download here by clicking on this link.
Authors: Michael Tresca
Type: Role-Playing Game (D20 Modern Supplement)
Suggested Retail Price: FREE
An American scientific expedition to the frozen wastes of the Antarctic is suddenly disrupted by the arrival of a husky, pursued by two Norwegians in a helicopter. The Norwegians fire indiscriminately at the dog. The team members defend themselves and shoot back, killing the Norwegians.
It doesn't take long before the Thing (in dog form) attacks the team. One by one, they are picked off and replaced by Thing duplicates.
As the expedition explores the Norwegian camp, the history of the Thing comes together. Centuries ago - an alien spaceship had crash-landed in the Antarctic. The pilot was thrown clear and eventually froze in the ice. But the Norwegians uncovered it. And then they thawed it out.
The Thing is a cellular colony that imitates other beings. It has the ability to alter its own cell structure to that of a consumed organism, and can thus imitate a victim almost perfectly.
If the Thing were to ever reach civilization, it could replicate so quickly that in a matter of days, it would duplicate every living being on Earth. It's up to the PCs to stop it...before the Thing stops them.
The Thing: Who Goes There? is a supplement for D20 Modern that contains five advanced classes, lots of equipment, rules for fear and trust, hazards, and seven Thing variants.

New JC Commentary on DVD

Ok, its not a commentary for a JC film but this makes it even more essential that you buy the new DVD (in all regions I believe) of Leone's classic Once Upon A Time In The West. Thanks to Tempus for summarising the details for me:

"Rounding out today's news are the full specs for Paramount Home Entertainment's highly anticipated new special edition of the Sergio Leone classic Once Upon a Time in the West, due to hit stores on November 18th. Newly restored in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Digital 5.1, there are extras galore: a new audio commentary with directors John Carpenter, John Milius and Alex Cox, film historians Sir Christopher Frayling and Dr. Sheldon Hall, and additional cast & crew, "An Opera of Violence," "The Wages of Sin," "Something To Do With Death" and "Railroad: Revolutionizing the West" featurettes, location and production galleries and the theatrical trailer. Retail is only $19.95. "

November 12th 2003

Snake Plissken.... I heard you were dead

Firs up, yes, I am paraphrasing with that title so don't write in telling me I got it wrong. Second up, was anyone else wondering where Snake Plissken Chronicles issue 3 was? It was supposed to come out in October but there has been no sign of it. There were also rumours of its demise so I am happy to put this statement direct from Hurricane Comics on the website. In addition I strongly urge any Snake or JC fan to get hold of this comic series. It is fantastically drawn and a great follow up to the film - don't miss out and regret it years later and have to fork out a fortune for the series on Ebay!

November 11, 2003 - Studio City, Ca: Taking on full publishing responsibilities of their critically-acclaimed action series, Hurricane Entertainment announces the upcoming release of issues 3 and 4 of JOHN CARPENTER'S SNAKE PLISSKEN CHRONICLES.
Jan Utstein-O'Neill, Publisher for Hurricane Entertainment said, "Rumors of Snake's death are greatly exaggerated. Here's a perfect example of life imitating art. As any Snake fan knows Mr. Plissken is not dead."
The entire series will ship exactly as solicited at 32 pages, $2.99 each, written by William O'Neill, penciled by Tone Rodriguez and colored by Chris Blythe. All previous orders through Diamond will be fulfilled.
"It was a dream to bring John Carpenter's vision to comics and I'm proud to say this story arc will be completed as originally intended. Same creators, same printer, same paper and even more thrills," said O'Neill.
Rodriguez added, "My dream was to have an original Michael Golden masterpiece grace our fourth cover. Wait till you see this beauty. Pencils, inks and colors by Golden. It's just awesome. Even Snake film Producer Debra Hill was blown away."
SNAKE PLISSKEN CHRONICLES #3 (Diamond Comic Distributors item codes: AUG032130 and AUG032131) is at Quebecor Printing right now and will ship at the end of this month. Issue #4 (Diamond Comic Distributors item codes: OCT032293 and OCT032294) is penciled and entering the final phases of production. As for future story arcs, Hurricane is currently speaking with several publishers.
"We thank our friends at CrossGen for helping us launch this series," stated Utstein-O’Neill. "We’ve believed in this book from the very beginning and I'm proud to say we deliberately over-printed the first two issues so that every fan could jump aboard at any time."
"While it’s been a challenging Autumn, it was also great to hear from so many people interested in Snake’s future. The best way to help is to ask your local comic shop to restock SNAKE PLISSKEN issues #1 and #2 so that issue #3 can be received by its widest audience yet," said Utstein-O'Neill.

Whats JC doing now?

Thanks to everyone who has been sending me news over the past month or two, I do read it all but unfortunately have been working away for a while so have not had site update access. That should all be sorted now so please keep sending it. This recent update from Christian gives a good summary on the new Halloween/Myers films rumours;

I guess you've already heard about it, but Cinescape wrote about rumors that Michael Bay might remake the original HALLOWEEN with a $15 million budget - apparently, the success of the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE version has started a new wave of horror remakes (a new version of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR is in development, too). You can find the story at:

http://www.cinescape.com/0/editorial.asp?aff_id=0&this_cat=Movies&action=page&type_id=&cat_id=270338&obj_id=40094
Ain't It Cool News reported that a Pinhead vs. Michael Myers movie was being talked about - but unfortunately, Moustapha Akkad does not seem to be interested at all. More info on the cancelled HELLRAISER/HALLOWEEN film can be found at:

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=16420

Carpenter in talks to produce and score Romero's 4 zombie pic

This does sound cool - the Dead Trilogy is amazing (Dawn of the Dead particularly so) and JC being involved, especially with the music, seems like a dream pairing. Here is some more info on this project:

Just a quick head up on a story at :

http://www.zombiekeeper.com/misc/george_interview.html

In which George Romero mentions that he and John Carpenter have discussed the possibility of John scoring and producing his next zombie pic.

September 17th 2003

Slant Magazine lists AOP13 in 100 essential films

Slant, an online file magazine, is compiling a list of 100 essential films. Recently AOP13 made the list with a discussion focussing on the racial integration issues in the screenplay.

September 16th 2003

JC to make the new Halloween?

This rumour has cropped up quite a bit in the last 30 years but it now seems to be gathering some real steam and people are not dismissing it as mental rambling. There is a really good breakdown on it at Creature Corner. My take on this is that JC has never made any secret of his ability/desire to sometimes fit into the "director for hire" mould and I am sure I remember a quote where he said he would only do a new Halloween if they gave him $20 million. That quote always seemd part tongue in cheek, part pricing himself so high so they wouldn't bother him and, I am sure, just a little grain of truth to it. Mind you, back when H20 was made Jamie Lee Curtis tried to get him to direct that one but he said he had no interest in doing it as he did not want to repeat himself. I don't really know if this rumour is going to fly or not, but I never thought JC would do a remake of EFNY either so what do I know. There is also a little bit on this rumour at Dark Horizons.

Review of John Carpenter: Prince of Darkness

I have mentioned this book before (I have it and think it is essential) and now Nick has been kind enough to send me a link to a review of it at Creature Corner.

The Thing on the big screen. Halloween night, York, UK

I mentioned this one before (see Aug 20th news) and now have been informed you can prebook tickets over the phone.

You can book tickets for The THING now, as tickets are now on sale. The box office number is 01904 541144

EFNY DVD details (and a little on The Fog R2 disc)

This DVD is going to be a while yet (Dec this year is the current hopeful release date for the R1 US disc) but at least we are starting to get the specs and covert art through:

Cover Art here - http://www.davisdvd.com/images/covers/escapefromny_lg.jpg
Check here for details, looks like it will be December, not sure what DVD region this will cover other than R1 though. - http://www.fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=1356
"Video trade ads have revealed the details of the long-awaited special-edition two-DVD release of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, coming from MGM Home Video December 16. The set will include a brand new, high-definition transfer of the John Carpenter science-fiction thriller, with fresh 5.1 audio and a pair of audio commentaries (no details on who’s on ’em, but presumably one will be the highly entertaining Carpenter/Kurt Russell track from the previous ESCAPE laserdisc). The second disc will contain what is likely the most anticipated extra: the full 10-minute deleted bank robbery scene (also with Carpenter/Russell commentary), along with a new featurette on the film and another on the SNAKE PLISSKEN CHRONICLES comic book, trailers, a photo gallery and more. The discs will come in a digipak with liner notes by Carpenter, plus a copy of a special-edition SNAKE PLISSKEN comic. All this for only $30!"

Thanks to John for the EFNY info. I have also heard that the best we can hope for R2 versions of the new special ed EFNY and THE FOG dvds is this time next year according to the BBC.

August 20th 2003

A roundup

I need to start off with the usual apologies for not answering my email enough and not sticking up stories quickly enough. I am very busy in work (a project deadline of Sept 9th looming) so it is tricky to get time on the site. So in the interest of speed I am going to do a quick roundup all in the one paragraph. First up is an awesome chance to watch The Thing on the big screen on Halloween night, in glorious 70mm Dolby surround sound!.

Hi. just thought id let you know that i have arranged a rare and rather special screening of 'The Thing' on October 31st 2003. This Halloween late night show will also be in 70mm with Six Track Dolby Stereo, The only way to see and hear this film to its full potential! Hope to see many JC fans here.

CITY SCREEN YORK LTD
13-17 CONEY STREET
YORK
ENGLAND
YO1 9QL
01904 541144

Many Thanks

Darren Briggs
Technical Manager
City Screen York LTD

I guess I should point out that this is a UK showing (this JC web site is based in the UK for those who don't know). I am hoping to get down to that showing myself. Next up I wanted to mention that the new R1 disc of Memoirs of an Invisible man is available (I used www.play.com to order mine). A great transfer, shame no JC interaction in the release of the DVD but there are some cool short extras on it. And lastly in this quick roundup I just wanted to mention the new Halloween 25th Anniversary DVD complete with the JC commentary from the Critertion laserdisc. So this sounds perfect doesn't it? It also has a great new 90min docu (ok, yep, another one) and a neat small docu showing where Halloween was filmed. Great if you want to go and check out the sites yourself. So doesn't it sound great? Well, apparently it is not perfect. The new transfer has caused a bit of concern - it seems the new DiviMax (or whatever it is called) transfer system has cleaned up the picture too well and ended up altering the light/shade/colour balance that was originally intended. DvdFile.com have a great full review of the disc and comment on this problem. So it seems the Anchor Bay special ed. disc is still the best way to watch the film.

August 1st 2003

First details on the Snake Plissken videogame

I am very excited about this one, this little update gives us some tantalising info about the game such as the use of a variety of weapons and fighting/playing styles (seems like Snake Plissken could have a little in common with Solid Snake in gameplay). Namco are a decent company, I am happy about this. As we knew before, its scheduled for 2005 but what this doesn't tell us is what platforms are they developing for? When is the PS3 due out? Will this game be on that or on PS2 or on (cough) the X-Box? Anyway, you can read the article for yourself thanks to Joshua Clarke.

July 22nd 2003

Is he doing Big Trouble in Little China 2?

Now there is a headline to grab the attention, and this story on Dark Horizons is where it started for me:

Big Trouble in Little China 2: Wing Kong reports that screenwriter Corey Mitchel spoke with producer Debra Hill and director John Carpenter last week, and indicated John is "totally on board" for a Big Trouble sequel providing that Corey can get it set up. Kurt Russell is rumoured to be similarly interested, and apparently work is underway in getting in touch with Jackie Chan regarding the project. Thanks to 'BurningSun'

Now I don't know about this one as JC has publicly said before he would love to do BTiLC2 but there wasn't enough money generated by the first one to make any studio go for it. Couple that with this recent comment on the MOTM mailing list:

A friend of mine was at the L.A. Screening of BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA with JC. During the Q&A he said that the "Robbery Sequence" was complete and inserted into the movie. My friend also said that no "new" projects were in the works for J.C.

The screening mentioned was very recent (last Thursday) and was one of those deals where they show the film (BTiLC in this case) and the director does a Q&A afterwards. Now seems strange that at a screening of BTiLC JC would say he does not have any new projects on the go (which, if true, is dissapointing) and then days later he appears to be "totally on board" a sequel to the film. I guess maybe JC is playing it safe as the original story does mention "providing that Corey can get it set up" which in the Hollywood game means this thing is probably a looong way from becoming reality. Still, we can dream, can't we.

Assault on Precinct 13 Soundtrack to finally be released on CD

Record Makers, an apparently smallish French record label are releasing this much sought after soundtrack in September, here is what they had to say about it when I chased them up:

I confirm that Record Makers will release this soundtrack around mid september.You will be able to purchase it in the uk trough our distributor.
Best
Stéphane
www.recordmakers.com

July 15th 2003

They Live and POD to get R1 ReRelease

Hey, Marc! I wanted to let you know I went to dvdfile and the dates for the Region 1 They Live and Prince Of Darkness DVDs are listed. Here's the information:
More Halloween horrors to come from Universal Studios Home Video, who will release a wave of scary movie favorites on October 7th. Fans of Wes Craven can look forward to his favorites The Serpent and the Rainbow and, making its DVD debut, The People Under the Stairs. Both get the anamorphic widescreen treatment plus Dolby 2.0 surround tracks, plus trailers. Also getting reissued in new Universal versions are the John Carpenter gems Prince of Darkness and They Live, which were previously available via Image Entertainment. Newly repackaged with the same specs above (no other extras have been announced), retail is $14.95 a pop. Two additional three packs will be available, The John Carpenter Collection (also with The Thing) and The Wes Craven Collection (with the abysmal Shocker), each for $39.95.
Later! Pinback

There is no word on whether these will have the extra's on the existing and fantastic R2 versions, though if I were to guess I would say probably not. I hope I am wrong for the sake of R1 dwellers but when I looked into this a while back I was told that the rights of They Live and POD are in different hands in R2 hence the recent special eds. Unless Universal licence the extras (which may happen) then the R1 re-releases are likely to be bare bones.

Starman R4 DVD Release

Here is the website for the Starman dvd release : Moviehole

John Carpenter Public Appearance on July 17th

sigh! Another one of those cool things that makes me wish I lived closer to LA.

Hey, I check out your site every so often and thought you might like to know about this special screening I saw listed at the Arclight here in LA. This is right around the corner, but I just got the email yesterday.
**Coming Soon - Now On Sale**
7/17: Hollywood's Master Storytellers' "Cult Classics" - BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA with Director JOHN CARPENTER
For a complete list of features with confirmed dates and times, visit arclightcinemas.com

A new way to make you spend money

Partly in response to those email pleas about "where do I get ... on DVD?" and partly just cos I think people will also like buying this stuff I have created a STUFF section on this website with short reviews and links for JC related stuff you can buy.

June 18th 2003

Snake News - A New Movie?

There is a bunch of news on the new Snake Plissken Chronicles comic on the Snake Plissken mini-site. The comic is now on general release and I have my copies (cool as...). One interesting rumour to have popped up is that Debra Hill is quoted as saying the comic is prep for a new Snake Plissken movie in 2006. I have no idea of this is a sequel to EFLA starring Kurt Russell or perhaps the anime movie we already know about?

Memoirs and Halloween DVD News

Pinback drops in with some updates on both of these:

www.horrordvds.com is listing the special features for the Memoirs DVD streeting on Aug 19th in the US. The disc will have a behind-the-scenes featurette (hopefully the HBO first look featurette), reassembled outtakes and the theatrical trailer. I also saw this on DVDfile.com but I have looked recently and can't seem to find the post. ... the upcoming Halloween DVD and what I have been told is that the high definition transfer is amazing, even better than the beautiful transfer already available on the current DVD. Anchor Bay has recently had a personnel change and the view on DVD's being released again is this; each new version is stripped down and a new version is created with a new transfer and new extras.

Christine and more Memoirs DVD News

Christine started my fascination with JC movies and seems to be finally getting the DVD release it deserves, I snipped this news from Assault on Webpage 13:

Memoirs of an Invisible Man:
"So Warner is adding some extra features; behind-the-scenes featurette and outtakes (plus the trailer.) 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen (thank god) and they're currently going with the original audio, a 2.0 track, though they're thinking of remixing it to a full 5.1."
Christine:
"Apparently, the new DVD for "Christine" *was* greenlit, John did a new commentary with Keith Gordon for it. (source: Carpenter's personal assistant.)"
courtesy of: Michael Allred

Big Jack Burton Style

AOW13 also drew my attention to the marvellous Wing Kong Exchange and the current availability of actual Jack Burton style vests! For those now too comfortable with letting all that armhair hang out they also have tshirts.

June 9th 2003

Halloween 25th Anniversary Special Edition DVD Specs

DVD Times has a look at the specs of the upcoming 25th anniv. disc, yet another release by Anchor Bay of this film (I think this is the 5th version?). I have the two disc special ed. with the hologram on the cover and still think this one looks worth getting as it has the Criterion collection commentary from JC, Hill and Curtis. JC is on record saying he feels this commentary says everything needed so there won't be a new commentary for DVD, which makes this essential to me. The new documentaries look interesting (especially the short 10minute revisit to the original sets). I have no idea what DiviMax is (though someone might point out to Anchor Bay that the word "divvy" won't come across as a good think the UK and it also reminds me of the awful Divx format) so don't know if it'll be technically better mind.

June 6th 2003

JC and Romero on the 4th Dead Movie?

After yesterdays surprising rumour about JC directing the 4th "living dead" film Matt got back to me with the source of the rumuor, quoted here:

"Dead Reckoning" has been dropped in favour of "land of the dead" as the current scripts title.
George has completed a new re-write of the script as of this year.
Miramax or Fox offered Romero approx 17 mil to do dead 4. He would be able to shoot whatever he wanted, but the theatrical cut would have to be rated R. But he would retain the rights to the picture, and would be able to release an "unrated version" on DVD, if he so chose.
If this deal falls through, John Carpenter has offered him (George) the same money. But Carpenter would be the executive producer of the project, write the score and would retain some rights to the piece.

So this rumour now seems to be a bit more creditable and it has me really excited (Dawn of the Dead being one of the best films ever). A little digging around and I found myself at the Dead Universe where I learned that

George A. Romero's fourth Living Dead film!!: After the Fangoria show, Michael from Anchor Bay told me all about the fourth dead film, Anchor Bay is producing it. The movie is called DEAD RECKONING and takes place 30 years after NOTLD. The story goes something like this, the dead have taken over the world and humans only survive in large gated communities, the story is about one community and the fact they get to comfortable with their safety inside the community. The script was finished at one point but after 9/11 Romero decided to rewrite it a bit to reflect his own feelings after the event

.

June 5th 2003

Still Alive

That's me, not JC. Not that he's.... oh never mind, I'm just trying to apologise yet again for a long gap between updates. What's been happening? Still no news of a new directorial job for JC (though some interesting rumours). In summary (but you can read the detail below) - the Snake Plissken Chronicles comic issue hits stores (in the US only I expect, bummer) on June 25th. Memoirs of An Invisible Man is getting a Region 1 (US only again) DVD release in August, as part of a Chevy Chase release schedule so nothing to do with JC and hence no JC extras. The Thing mini-series on the Sci-Fi channel is still going ahead (which is getting people on the excellent In The Mouth of Madness yahoo mail list all hot and bothered) and there is also a daft sounding (to me anyway) remake of Assault On Precint 13 in the works (a straight remake, not JCs own one like Prince of Darkness and Ghosts of Mars) that is winding up the informed members of the Mouth of Madness mailing list even more than the Thing remake/reimagining/cash-in. Oh yeah, still expecting the EFNY DVD special ed around the end of the year, and it is confirmed it will include the bank robbery scene though as a seperate extra, not put back in the film. Thanks to everyone who has kept sending me email even though the site has been quiet. I do read it.

Snake and AOP13 details

Bill Myers sent me links to all the info you need on the AOP13 remake and the Snake Plissken Chronicles comic:

Some articles in case you missed them...
Cinescape Snake Chronicles info
Aint it Cool News AOP13 remake info

Fletch then pointed me at more info about the Snake comic on Cinescape.

JC and Romero? Cool....

Totally a rumour, but a great sounding one, I doubt very much if it is true but it made me smile so I had to share:

I just heard some really crazy news about John Carpenter. I got a letter from a guy telling me that John Carpenter most likely will direct and write the music to George A. Romero´s next zombiemovie!!!! :-O Can you confirm this piece of news? Have you heard anything like that? PLEASE tell me this IS true!

Thanks to Matt for that, I agree with him and hope someone can tell us it is true.

JC and Sergio Leone? Even cooler...

This intriguing bit of news comes from Lars:

Hi, according to this page John is doing a commentary for an upcoming dvd edition of Leones 'Once upon a time in the west'. Look under "Spécifications complètes :"

Memoirs of An Invisible Man DVD

Thanks for everyone who sent me the details about this, here is the info from Tim;

"Memoirs of an Invisible Man" is finally getting a R1 DVD release on 19th August 2003 by Warner Bros. No specs have been announced yet, but I'm sure it will have an anamorphic print and Dolby Digital surround.

Euro JC releases

good news I think, this page discusses a European release of a few special editions of JCs films, including The Fog. Thanks to Loic for the info.

April 1st 2003

The Thing TV Series

Jon Solita (www.no-name-films.com) pointed out this Cinescape online story that you can read at their site. This is what they say:

Late Monday afternoon The Sci-Fi Channel announced a long list of projects in development for broadcast in the 2004-2005 season (see our other stories for details on these new shows.) Among the new shows announced was a new mini-series that will "re-envision" THE THING.
Here is how Sci-Fi Channel described the new THING mini-series:
"It's everywhere. It's anything. And it can't be stopped. SCI FI re-envisions the terrifying suspense classic, THE THING, which follows a team of American scientists who discover a bloodthirsty alien life form in the frozen expanse of Antarctica. Swift, stealthy and cunning, this shape-shifting monster assumes the appearance of its victims with the aims of earning the scientists' trust -- and decimating the group from the inside. Who can be trusted, and who is a threat? The miniseries, written by Gary L. Goldman (MINORITY REPORT, TOTAL RECALL), will be distributed by USACE."
Sci-Fi did not give a broadcast date for the project, nor has casting begun on the show.

That is all I know about it so far, I would appreciate any info if anyone reading this knows anything. I am pretty excited about this and hope it goes well. I'll say right now that I was a huge Stephen King fan when I was younger and love what the Sci-Fi channel have done with "The Dead Zone" (plus Anthony Micheal Hall makes me go all misty for my teenage years staying up late and watching Weird Science). The writer has obvious pedigree (he co-wrote Big Trouble in Little China), it'll be the cast and crew that'll make this fly or flop. I should also point out that yes, I do know the date, but this story appeared yesterday so I don't think it is a hoax.

JC considering new projects

Just some general stuff, first off to say that I doubt very much if the Black Sky project (see earlier news) has anything to do with JC. It looks far too lame, and yes, even lamer than people reckon Ghosts of Mars is (which I kinda liked anyway). A project mentioned earlier "Another World", based on an 80s videogame classic, has gained a bit of cred when I learned from The Taxman that:

After taking a well deserved long relaxing vacation John is just now starting to think about a new project(s). Another world script is just that, a script. But we can't talk about projects until they are fully developed and ready to be films.

Which gets me excited, as it means we can at least hope to see a new JC film in the next few years!

Feb 18th 2003

Black Sky

This is one JC film rumour that hasn't been shot down yet and Tom Alaerts has some more info on it:

In the new Mad Movies there's some more info on Black Sky. It's about teenagers in a summer camp suddenly attacked by a bunch of crows. they flee to a cabin and try to survive... I think that this sounds awfully lame!
There is a teaser poster in the mag as well (it's an independent production company behind this, by the way), indeed with teenagers being attacked by birds in the woods. It looks like a grade Z movie. Now, Mad Movies also ends this rumour with: "let's see if this film will be made".
Unless there are nice twists and turns in the full story, I really hope that JC will aim higher for his next project...

Oh dear, that sounds awfully lame....

Feb 14th 2003

JC is not doing Armageddon

from Dark Horizons:
Revelations (aka. Armageddon Trilogy): Moviehole reports that whilst 35 Central is developing the "Armageddon" trilogy for the big screen, John Carpenter will NOT be directing as earlier rumoured. Instead, Director Tobe Hooper ("Poltergiest") is in talks and "was attached to the project in December 2002. Negotiations started with Mr. Hooper's lawyers but were suspended because of scheduling difficulties. Mr. Carpenter was suggested by an outside source as a possible, but the project is yet to be presented to him. 35Central have no intentions of taking the project to Mr. Carpenter, at this stage (unless requested), due to its scope and Mr. Carpenter's obvious penchant for "intimate" horror films". Both Russell Mulcahy ("Highlander") and Michael Rymer ("Queen of the Damned") have also been approached but no-one has yet been signed. Thanks to 'Clint'.

Not too much of a surprise I guess, I think we really have to admit that JC is not making a new movie at the moment. All the decent reports indicate he is busy overseeing the Snake Plissken franchise stuff (writing the music for the anime for one) and probably having a look at potential projects with no commitment yet. There was that bit of news from Feb 3rd about that Black Sky project mind....

Feb 13th 2003

EFNY Anime

A nice little update on the EFNY anime project courtesy of the Anime News Network (thanks to Joakim H for pointing this out):

Snake Plissken, Kurt Russell's trademark character from John Carpenter's Escape from New York and Escape from L.A., will come to life in a Production IG anime in 2005.
Production I.G has confirmed details with ANN about the upcoming Escape from New York anime that they are producing.
At this early stage in the development details are still scarce, but this is what I.G was able to tell us:
Production I.G is producing animation for a full-length (80-90 minutes) feature film. The script for the film is by Corey Mitchel and William Wilson under supervision of John Carpenter, Debra Hill and Kurt Russel. Production I.G is also able to give feedback on the story. While no distribution plans have been made yet, they are hoping for a "major" release of the film towards the end of 2004.
John Carpenter will score the music and Kurt Russel will provide the voice of Snake Plisken after the animation is complete. This is normal for Anime, however North American animated productions usually start with the voices, and then produce the animation to match the speech.
So far, I.G has completed a 30 second teaser / trailer for the movie, which will be included on the upcoming Escape from New York DVD. Snake is the only character that speaks in the trailer, and Kurt Russel will be recording the voice for the trailer soon.
The Japanese director will be Mitsuro Hongo.

Especially cool to hear that JC is doing the music for it, the internet movie database has no mention of the writers or the director. Production I.G. do have a website where you can see some of the awesome work they did on the seminal Ghost In The Shell (2nd best anime of all time in my opinion, I am a bit of a sheep and agree that Akira is still the best one). Nothing on the EFNY project yet.

Feb 10th 2003

Armageddon

A little snippet from Dark Horizons, usually a pretty decent source:

Armageddon Trilogy: Filmink reports that Director John Carpenter is looking at a new $20 million dollar horror trilogy with Australian actress Tammin Sursok attached to star.

Tammin was in "Home and Away", the dire, worse than neighbours aussie teen soap. Mind you, Guy Pearce was in neighbours and then he did LA Confidential so it might not be all that bad. She has got her own website, one of the usual publicity type sites. It's got a news section (titled "Whats Happening" cos it is sooooo cool) but no mention of any movie projects. www.filmink.com does not seem to be active so I can't give you any info on that. The movie mentioned, "Armageddon Trilogy", is such a generic title that a web search turns up millions of hits. So anyone have any info in this? None of the recent rumours (A "birds type" horror, a straight thriller, the computer game title) seem to gel with this info.

ADDITION: While I was writing this story I got this fantastic email that goes into all the detail we need (seems the site to look at is filmink.com.au, not filmink.com):

"REVELATIONS This, folks, is something to get excited about, if only because the producer said to , "this is gonna be old school." The first of a trilogy of films to be made over the next three years, Revelations is a horror/Armageddon story about to go into pre-production. With the film privately financed on a budget of $20million, producer and production company 35Central's director, Francisco Seguin is far from nonchalant about the script he's been working on for 13 years that is now finally going to happen. Currently negotiating with John Carpenter to direct, 35Central has already attached a number of heavyweight talents, including special effects company IFX (Lord of the Rings) for a decidedly "no-CGI zone" film. While the lead bloke will most likely be an American, the leading lady will be an Aussie, with the smart money currently sitting on Home & Away starlet Tammin Sursok. The impetus of the project is its marketing structure, which has been developed over the last few years. There are no press releases going out about the film right now, so things are being kept quiet. The three films are planned to be released one year, one month, and one day apart from each other, with the third opening on 06/06/06." If this pans out, it sounds pretty damn cool. John Carpenter + Old School - CGI = Sweet.

Note the use of the phrase "Currently negotiating with..." when mentioning JC, so this project could amount to nothing to do with JC eventually.

Feb 6th 2003

Snake Plissken Update

Though often hard to read due to Harry's hyperbolic style and his broken keyboard (he needs to get that stuck exclamation mark key fixed) www.aint-it-cool-news.com still has one of the best inside lines to Hollywood of all the online websites, and he does hang out with JC now and again. Today he posted a great update on the various Plissken projects destined to wipe out all our spare cash:

Hey folks, Harry here with the latest on Snake Plissken. Production IG is indeed doing the animation on Snake, and the first place that you'll get a gander at Snake all anime looking is on the upcoming ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK Dvd... you may notice that Target and other chains are beginning to blow out their old EFNY dvds - because they now the new one is coming, and the new one will give us a look at what Snake is up to. I've heard that the anime will have the voices of several cool actors (I'm working on it) so hopefully Production IG will do a real bang up job on it! Hi,

I'm not sure if this is new news, but it was news to me.

I was at the Creation Convention last weekend in Pasadena and on Friday I saw a panel for Snake Plissken. On the panel was Debra Hill, the Hurricane Comic guys, two people from Maverick, the writers of the Snake Plissken anime and two people from Production IG.

Escape from New York is one of my favorite movies, so I was already excited about Snake making a comeback, but I hadn't heard who was making the anime until now. Production IG, the people who made Ghost in the Shell are making the Snake anime! How cool is that? The woman from Production IG said that not only are they working on it, but this would actually be the first co-production between a Japanese anime studio and American producers. I'm guessing that's what the guys from Maverick were doing there. They said they were looking for a 2005 release and that everyone was very excited.

Debra Hill said that different Snake stories would be told through different mediums. The anime will take place after Escape from LA, while the comic will start the day after Escape from New York. Stories like how Snake lost his eye and the Battle of Leningrad will come out in the videogame. She also said that Fabian Nicieza is writing the books.

It's great to see some producers in Hollywood working so closely with people on the comic and anime side. First the Wachowski brothers with the Animatrix and now this. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a trend.

I hope this is useful.

You can call me Jimmy James.

Feb 3rd 2003

More Speculation on JCs current projects

First update of the year, a little slack I know but there really wasn't much news until now. Here is the 1st snippet on what JC might be up to, thanks to Tom Alaerts:

this is a little snippet from the french mag Mad Movies whose rumors are are usually quite trustworthy (many of my past postings came from that mag): JC next project would be "Black Sky", a kind of modern The Birds... The magazine promises to publish a bit more info next month...

I like the sound of that one, here is an alternative bit of info, this time from inside JCs own setup:

this is what Gina, Carpenter's assistant had to say to my mail:
happy to say that John isn't yet retired from making films and music. Currently he is overseeing the Snake anime project ( no release date just yet) and also look for a snake comic book (also no idea when it will be released). He's been busy working in his music studio and other projects.

That sounds like the most reliable bit of info we have had. The "other projects" a nice little throwaway remark that keeps us guessing.

December 9th

Big Trouble in Little China Figures

I mentioned a while back that a company was developing BTILC action figures, and they have now surfaced on ebay (the link takes you to a search result for them). They look pretty cool, but cost a packet on ebay:

Jack Burton and friend

December 5th

Was this website duped?

The Taxman, a very decent source in the past, has told me that "the Burial Men was a crock of shit!" and maybe it was just a way to get people to look at this website when I posted the original news? Could be; one of the advantages of not being official is that I don't have to cross verify all the info. If its interesting to me I chuck it up on the website and never claim it to be the whole truth. So, maybe they were hoaxing me or maybe their script did get into some sort of potential deal that fell through. At least we now know that it is not JCs current project, which deepens the mystery as a few rumours insist he is working on something - there is a long list of rumoured items:

The Fog II - sparked off after the DVD special ed of the original. I doubt it. Also rumoured to actually be a remake of the original rather than a sequel.
The Thing II - sparked off after the new videogame, with loads of rumours that JC was asking for millions to direct it when he had not even been approached.
Unknown Thriller - not a title, just a whisper on a project JC mentioned, that he was writing a straight thriller script.
Creature From The Black Lagoon - a long cherished project of JCs that the suits just will not give to him. Guillermo Del Toro, who I have a lot of time for (he did Cronos and Mimic) looks like he has it now, but his ideas for the movie (on Dark Horizons today) sound incredibly lame to me.

There are a few other even madder rumours out there as well. Keeps us all guessing nicely.

December 4th

Late Update - New JC movie decided and in production?

This has come from The Taxman's mouth:

...I found out that the next movie (not the one in production) is being based on a video game? But i dont think its The Thing 2, a game called "Another World"?. The script was sent to JCs agent at William Morris Agency in Beverly Hills, and given the green light. I dont have any more info on it. I have not heard of this game....

So this info seems to say two things - first up there is a new JC film in production and that no one will discuss it yet (I had heard this somewhere else as well) and second that there is even another one on the slate after the current one, a videogame-based title called "Another World". It seems that Delphine have a game by that title on Amiga (remember them?) and PC - their website has little info on this apart from "Another World / Out of this world / Heart of the alien (three names for the same game!) (1992) for PC, Amiga, Atari ST, Genesis, SNES, Sega CD" so it does seem like an old game. You can view their website for the game which still offers little in the way of a plot summary either. There is a review of the game online that offers a much better overview of the plot. It is a sci-fi story of a character sucked into another, strange world that he must make his way through - sounds like perfect material for JC. For those of you with PCs this site claims to let you download the entire game. I don't have a PC myself so I can't vouch for the safety or legality of this at all. One last piece of info can be found on the amiga games website, pointing out that the game was called Out Of This World in the US to avoid clashing with some cheesy soap opera of the same name. Plenty of info to digest in all of those links I think.

Images from the game

December 4th

Site Overhaul

As news is short at the moment I have finally decided to update the pages on each film with the aim of making the site more of a useful resource (and perhaps a reluctant admission on my part that we really may have seen the last JC directed film?). Anyway, enough of the depressing, the first page to get this overhaul is The Fog. It has had the natty graphic update and also some content changes to the review and the addition of the DVD info. Some of you may not know that this site has a DVD section which was an attempt at collating all of the JC DVD info in one place. I now realise that the DVD info is just as important as the film info so having it in seperate sections is not a good idea (plus you might notice the DVD page is woefully out of date). So as the site overhaul takes off each page should have numerous sections added - DVD reviews, game reviews (if I can stop playing The Thing for long enough to write about it), books, comics, etc. Just think of each film page as hopefulyl containing everything you need to know about that film. Comments, suggestions and material greatly accepted for the site as well. Marc.

December 3rd

I know, there hasn't been a news update for a long time, but simply, there has not really been much happening. I have been watching El Diablo and They Bite (or Morsure as my French copy has it) on DVD (hopefully some reviews later) and really, really enjoying the fantastic game that is The Thing on PS2. People have been emailing me but I have been too busy to get stuff sorted, so today is a roundup of a lot of the mail sent to me. Sorry if I havn't replied yet, but I will.

JCs Next Project (yet another snippet)?

This is old:

Dateline: Thursday, August 2, 2001 By: FRANK KURTZ By: News Editor Source: Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith
Though GHOSTS OF MARS hasn't hit theater screens yet, director John Carpenter is at work on his next movie project. But he's choosing to stay quiet about what it is.
While talking to syndicated columnists Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith, Carpenter revealed, "I'm in the process of starting to write another thriller, but don't know when I'll actually get into production. I've made 20 films in 30-plus years and, let's face it, the older you get the slower you have to go. It's hard to get up in the morning."
But first, after the release of MARS, Carpenter is planning on taking avacation.

Fog Sequel? 'Night of the Demon' remake? Thing Sequel?

A whole bunch of rumours here, in order I would say - "not likely","possible" and "no way" as my take on whether they will be happening.

I bet you've noticed since your last news update that a whole mess of rumors surfaced over the past few days concerning J.C. First, THE FOG hit DVD here in the US, and what followed in its wake were two interesting rumors. First, it is said that JC and Debra Hill are considering a sequel to The Fog...then it became the notion that the duo are pitching a big-budget remake of said picture. Next, Carpenter has apparently been quoted as saying that his next picturemay be a remake of the classic Jacques Tourneur thriller NIGHT/CURSE OF THEDEMON!Finally, with the buzz surrounding THE THING video game, Universal has allegedly approached JC with the prospect of directing a sequel to his 1982 monster romp. He has said yes, but asked for a boat-load of money....so Universal is apparently waiting to see how the game's success plays out... Lastly, where can I get a copy of that Guardian article you mentioned that contains JC's disappoint over GHOSTS unjustly lackluster response? - Best,Chris

AOP13 and EFNY French DVDs

"Assault" has been recently released as a 2-DVD-set in France - sadly the discs seem to be qute horrible. You can find a review on: www.dvdrama.com
Some weeks ago, "Escape From New York" has been released as DVD here in Germany. Sadly without extras and not in the correct ratio. (approximately 2,10: 1.
Tobias

JC not filming in Australia

I know, not exactly news but I like the info about JC liking to shoot close to home:

I was hoping to see J/C film down this way (Australia) .. So i asked Gina Gilberto (Assistant to John Carpenter) and this was here reply :
"Personally I would love it if John and Sandy filmed the next movie in Australia... However, they like to shoot close to home when they can."
She also mentioned that there was nothing she would or could discus at this point of time in the way of production of a new film . So to all thouse fanz in the south pacific the only place we will see a J/C film up close is at the cinama etc. Unless he films The thing 2 in Antarctica .

Ghosts of Mars Vehicle Design

I was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to design and construct 4 large steel mobiles that were used in Ghosts of Mars.
Mr. Carpenter really liked them, and as a result, they appear several times in the film. He was also kind enough to send me some photos of my work hanging on set during filming.
These photos, as well as the original concept drawings for the mobiles, can be found on my site:
http://www.arbitrarydesign.com
I hope you enjoyed my work as it appeared in the movie, and I hope you will take the time to visit my site and let me know what you think.
Robert

New JC Interview Online

Just wanted you to know of a brand new interview with CARPENTER that is on the net! The original site to find it on is
http://www.movienavigator.org/
or just go to the great PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON fan site CIGARETTES AND COFFEE which is at www.ptanderson.com

EFNY DVD Delayed!

This is a real bummer:

I just read (Digital Bits): Sadly, we've been told by sources that a decision has been made to push back the release of MGM's Escape from New York: Special Edition until December of 2003, rather than January as had been reported by director John Carpenter recently. - Mark Hammon

October 15th

El Diablo available on DVD

While browsing ebay for yet more JC stuff I found out that El Diablo, one of the two westerns that JC wrote in the seventies (the other is Blood River) is available on DVD:

Ebay UK El Diablo Listings

While not a fantastic film it is an enjoyable enough TV movie, definitely better than the more recent Silent Predators. You can also find it on Amazon.com. Now if only someone would release Blood River and Elvis on DVD. Oh, and Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Black Moon Rising,.....

.

October 8th

The Burial Men

Is this a possible first heads up about a new JC movie? Who knows, but the title itself is certainly intriguing enough.

Just thought you maybe interested in this little snippet of news. I run a low budget film company called Shivilenco Pictures. Up until a few weeks ago we were filming a feature called The Burial Men. This was basically because we could not sell it ourselves. Anyway, last week we had a call from a person at the offices of StormKing productions asking about the availability of the script (It has got around) We are hoping to speak to them again next week regarding a selling opportunity. Our own version is now on hold. They said Mr Carpenter himself expressed an interest. I will keep you posted.
Colin Hives
Shivilenco Pictures
www.angelfire.com/movies/SHIVILENCO

October 2nd 2002

Fog DVD Review

First up is an excellent review from Don M. followed by some of my own thoughts on this fantastic DVD:

.... a review of the new Region 1 Fog Special Edition DVD.
I'll start by saying that this is the best looking version of the Fog ever. I have the Laserdisc that was released in the 90's and it doesn't come close to the picture quality of the DVD. You have the option of viewing the movie in either standard or the preferred widescreen format. The 2:35:1 version is without a doubt superior in quality (No J.C. film should be viewed any other way). There are absolutely no artifacts and the contrast is exceptional. The darks are dark and completely clear of any film grain or spots on the print. I don't know where they found the master for this DVD, but it's flawless. Color separation is excellent and the flesh tones look great. The sound is also very impressive. There is a new 5.1 Dolby Digital surround mix and it sounds great. The dialogue is much clearer and the music and sound effects are well placed. The original mono soundtrack is also available as well as a French soundtrack. The extras included on the DVD include the never before released original documentary of the film from 1980, a new documentary created specifically for the DVD, Outtakes, storyboard to film comparison, liner notes by J.C., an advertising gallery (which includes a trailer and teaser and t.v. spots), and the audio commentary by J.C. and Debra Hill from the 90's laserdisc. The original documentary is interesting. We get to see J.C., Jamie Lee Curtis, Debra Hill and Janet Leigh at the time the film was released. It's great to see the enthusiasm for the film displayed in the documentary. Also, the new documentary is excellent as well. J.C. is in it as well as Debra Hill and even Janet Leigh. Jamie Lee Curtis is only included using the clips from the 1980 documentary. The other extras are great and most are from the laserdisc version.
To sum it all up, the Fog Special Edition DVD is a must have for any John Carpenter fan. Even if you're just a fan of horror, it still is a must have title. Finally, a John Carpenter classic gets the release it deserves. Take Care, Don in the States

I have to second Don's endorsement, I felt like I was watching The Fog for the first time again with this DVD as I had never seen it in widescreen. The remaster is a fantastic job for such an old low budget film. I particularly liked the new documentary for this as well, revisiting a lot of the old scenes and giving a great breakdown on the stuff that was changed after the infamous 1st cut bombed with JC and the audience alike. You really, really have to get hold of this disc and I hope the EFNY release (with bank robber scene!) gets the same treatment

JC Interview in Fangoria

Fantastic interview that discusses JCs involvement with the upcoming EFNY stuff - the comics, manga movie and the DVD re-release:

JC Fangoria Interview.

They Live and Prince of Darkness Special Edition Region 2 DVDs

These great discs originally came out a few weeks ago (stroll through older news stories on this site to find my take on them) and they are now being released in the UK with English packaging as opposed to the original German packaging. Aside from that I believe the discs are identical to the German ones.Click on the images below (these are the English R2 covers) for full reviews of the discs:

September 5th 2002

more news on the thing 2 from AICN

So What Does John Carpenter Think About This THING 2 Buzz Going Around The Web? Hey folks, Harry here... Ever since Patrick Sauriol broke that story about THE THING 2 possiblities at UNIVERSAL - I've been salivating. That's the exact sort of rumor that I click my heels together three times and whisper, "Please be True, Please be True, Please be True!"
Tonight I was talking to John Carpenter's wife and producer Sandy King about it, and she didn't know a thing about anything having to do with THE THING 2. Well, when a friend of her son's came in to ask her about John doing THE THING 2, she asked me what the word was about this deal and I told her about the Coming Attraction rumor. She was befuddled, but then asked me to hold on a minute while she ran downstairs to ask John what was going on. And here is what John said:
"I would love to do a sequel to "The Thing", but no one has asked me."

So JC hasn't been knocking back replies demanding full control and huge budget, he doesn't know anything about it. You know, this could be a win,win situation for us anyway. If JC gets the budget and directs we could see a return to classic form (maybe even squeeze Kurt Russel in somehow?). If he doesn't, maybe it's a cool project for a Del Toro or a Norrington, or even a Fincher?

September 2nd 2002

The Fog Remake?

This is mad sounding news:

From http://www.creature-corner.com, it's said Carpenter and Hill are shopping a "Fog" re-make, and that Universal is considering a "Thing" sequel if thevideo game does well. WTF? =====Gabitsch

The Thing 2?

Normally I would just discount these sorts of rumours, but now the argument seems to have some sound financial basis it does start me wondering:

Keep up the good work. Just thought I'd give you this heads up on a possible sequel to The Thing. Excited?

~Leon

From Coming Attractions:
This week Universal Interactive is releasing a new PlayStation 2 game that serves as a semi-sequel to Carpenter's 1982 movie The Thing. Set approximately three months after the end of the film, The Thing video game puts you in charge of a recon squad sent to investigate the abrupt termination of contact from U.S. Outpost #31 in the Antarctic. As you search the shattered remains of the base and discover what events led up to the destruction of the research facility, members of your team will be attacked and taken over by the shapeshifting extraterrestrial. Already the game has received good buzz from leading video game review sites such as IGN and Gamespot.
Two sources have told Coming Attractions that Universal film executives have already been testing the waters to see if they shouldn't dust off the film franchise and consider making a sequel to Carpenter's classic film. Our first anonymous insider, known only as "MC", told us that Universal has already sent out feelers to see if none other than John Carpenter himself would ever consider continuing the story as writer/director! And the reason for this sudden interest in making a sequel to a movie that was originally considered a box office failure? The widespread fan interest in the video game, apparently.

However, our source was quick to mention there is a downside: supposedly Carpenter sent back his own "feeler" that he might be interested...provided Universal coughed up the big bucks. "Ole Johnny Carpenter wants a little too much money for his part," our inside connection told CA. After a string of box office dissappointments like Ghosts of Mars, Vampires and the $70 million dollar Escape from L.A. dud, that's why at this current stage of discussion Carpenter's name is only "being considered" as a possible creative partner for The Thing 2 and not firmly attached to the project.

We ran this info by a second source who said that there was definitely some talking going on about The Thing 2 at Universal but they couldn't confirm the Carpenter angle.

Furthermore, "MC" said that Universal wants to wait and see what the sales figures for the PlayStation game are first before assigning a dollar value to any possible Thing movie sequel. What if sales of The Thing video game take off? Most likely it will strengthen support that more thought should be put into The Thing 2, which might mean Universal would be willing to ante more development moolah -- and that would certainly help John Carpenter's quote. If consumer sales are strong but not overwhelming, it might mean the project may yet advance but without Carpenter's involvement. Based on the pre-buzz and favorable previews the game has been receiving from the game industry, it's unlikely Universal Interactive will have a bomb on their hands -- which is pretty ironic when you stop and consider Carpenter's movie tanked when it first was released back in the summer of '82.

Now if we can just get a hold of John Carpenter and ask him to confirm or deny these rumors...

Easter Egg on The Fog DVD

This just in from DVD Review (http://www.dvdreview.com/):
Did you know that MGM Home Entertainment has hidden some additional footage on their release of John Carpenter's 'The Fog?' Let us tell you how to find it.
From the disc's Main Menu go to the 'Special Features' section. Once you get there, press the 'Right' arrow key on your remote control twice and you will highlight a pair of eyes. Now, press the 'Enter' button on your remote control and you will see some behind-the-scenes footage about the creation of the special effects, complete with music from the film's score. This Easter Egg is a contribution from our reader Travis Roper.Mark Hammon

The Thing game review

I am so looking forward to getting my hands on this:

well, a partial review because i have yet to finish the game... AND I ONLY PLAY IT AT NIGHT!! it adds tot eh creepiness.

fans of resident evil games will like it simply because its 'kinda' like RE with the exception of a few unique features! the first thing is that instead of controlling 1 character, you control a squad of 4 (including yourself). there is a medic, who heals members of your squad, then there's the soldiers who's the kick ass of the group, then you have the engineers-who's job is to repair electrical boxes and computers. your character fortunatly had the ability to perform all fucntion with the exception of the high level junction box repairs.

the second unique feature of the game is the 'fear and trust' meters. the horror element is as in the movie, the alien who imitates and kills. each squad member has a fear and trust meter that u must try and maintain so your squad can operate as a unit. for example, if your squad member has i low trust meter, that means he wont do what you say, and he watches you closely. if the meter gets too low, he will try an kill you. the same as the fear meter, if a squad member gets too scared, he will go batty and maybe kill everyone. the ways of building strong trust between you and your squaddies to equip them with weapons, or by performing the infamous blood test on yourself to show them that you are not infected with the alien virus.

there are numerous weapons and items strewn throughout the game. the enviroments are very creepy...from outside the base in a snow blizzard at night, to dark creepy rooms and hallways that adds to the eerieness and fright of the game. just the fact of you as a player facing the same situations as the unlucky characters of the movie...

i cant wait to finish it...

by the way...you find out what happens to CHILDS.

steve

August 31st

General Update and a little bit of self advertising

Been a slow news month again, but before giving a general update I wanted to shamelessly promote my current Ebay auctions, which you can view through the link below
Marc Bright's Ebay Auctions
You might ask why you should care, so I'll point out that I do have a lot of JC related merchandise and have finally decided to offload some of my replicated stuff. At the moment you can get the R1 DVDs of They Live and Prince of Darkness that have been out of print for a while. If you have a DVD player that only does R1 discs then this will probably be your best chance for a good while to get your hands on these films. You can also get the Ghosts of Mars soundtrack on CD. Enough of wasting your time, I'll get on with the news.

Creature From The Black Lagoon is finally moving through development, but JC is not attatched to it. It is Guillermo Del Toro (Blade 2, Cronos The Vampire) and there is no word on whether the 80s script will be used. I personally think this is pretty good news as I didn't want to see JC do another remake and Del Toro should do a great job of it. The remake of The Day Of The Triffids is also not happening (the report was just a rumour) and here I am going to go in reverse and say I would love to have seen JC do it. I watched the 50s movie the other day and it it surprisingly creepy, imagine what JC could have hopefully done with it. "The Thing" PS2 game has been released in the US, we get it over here (UK) at the end of September. Anyone played it yet? Also, the retirement rumours keep resurfacing, due in no small part to a recent article in The Guardian that focused on JCs dissapointment with the reception of GOM. People in the know keep assuring us that he is not retiring, and Sandy King has emailed some people on the Mouth of Madness mailing list to reiterate that he is not retiring (she should know, she is his wife).

August 7th

Big Trouble In Little China Action Figures

Mohammad, over at The Carpenticized (nope, I don't just copy all my stuff of his site) has scooped again with a great look at these fantastic (yet more stuff to buy) set of action figures. These things look fantastic.

7:23 PM 8/6/02 Big Trouble Figures!!!
Pictures of the BTILC gang in full plastic glory! Seems like we're relegated to six of them, hope I'm wrong but they look cool. My McFarlane Snake Plissken sits atop my monitor as I type this and even thoug he doesn't look like Kurt Russell he still gives his approval. Thanks to Dedrick's email to me today.
love your website and just thought I'd let you know that there is an update and new pictures of the BTILC figures at:
http://www.aftimes.com/2002comcon/n2mirage/index.html

July 31st 2002

Russel is Snake

Mohammad, over at The Carpenticized, has fantastic news that Kurt Russel will be providing the voice of Snake in the upcoming anime movie of Snakes post-EFNY adventures. Fantastic news. Russel will also be doing motion capture work for the upcoming Snake Plissken video game (so thats a comic, an anime movie and a videogame) to make sure the creators really capture that unique Snake vibe. Here are two reports on this.

'Escape' artist Snake eyeing big comeback
Snake To Escape Again

July 30th 2002

Plissken Returns!

Ok, I might be guilty of getting hopes up a little too much with that headline but I could not resist. There is not a new Snake Plissken film coming, rather JC and Sandy King are following through on their recent statements of using JCs name as a multimedia brand (sounds awfully corporate but I do like the idea of having loads of JC stuff) by bringing out what looks like the coolest comic book since Peter Parker got bit. I have had some excellent detailed e-mails sent to me about this so I will let them speak for themselves. Suffice to say I am very excited by this and will definitely be buying them. Check out the sneak peek images on the weblink:

Browse to Comic Book Resources and you can find details of a Snake Plissken comic book project. - Tom Alaerts

From corona.bc.ca: There's going to be a brand-new, on-going comic book featuring the further adventures of Snake Plissken, the anti-hero from John Carpenter's Escape From New York and Escape from L.A.. The title? John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles. The series will be produced by Hurricane Comics, the same company that released Violent Messiahs and published by an as-yet unnamed comic book publishing company. (Marvel? DC? Image??) What's even cooler is that all three bigwigs from the movies, namely director Carpenter, producer Debra Hill and actor Kurt Russell, will all be involved in the comic book in executive producer roles. They will help contribute to the mythology of Plissken's dystopic future world and oversee the development of the comic's story arcs. Chronicles will be an on-going series of story arcs, similar to the method Dark Horse Comics publishes their Star Wars comic book tales. The first story arc will be written by William O'Neill (writer of Chassis) with artwork by Tone Rodriguez (artist from Violent Messiahs). And even better, the first story arc is set directly after the events seen in Escape From New York. Forget all about Escape From L.A. which takes place years after EFNY anyway. In fact, our source tells us the very first words you'll read on page one will be "Early the next day..." That's right: the action starts the day after Snake's escape from the prison of New York as he crosses the border into New Jersey. If you're going to be attending the con, you're also going to be one of the lucky few who will have a chance to get their hands on a preview book that will be on sale at Comic Con. The preview comic will contain the first 7 pages of Chronicles as well as an exclusive interview with John Carpenter about the character of Snake and Escape From New York.Expect another announcement next week regarding which comic book publisher will release the new book. The first issue of John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles is due in stores in the spring of 2003.

STUDIO CITY, CA -- July 28, 2002 -- Hurricane Entertainment has partnered with the legendary talents of Director John Carpenter, Producer Debra Hill and Actor Kurt Russell to produce a new comic book series based on the continuing adventures of their infamous anti-hero SNAKE PLISSKEN. Plissken is the lead character of the 1981 classic science fiction film ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK.The series, entitled JOHN CARPENTER'S SNAKE PLISSKEN CHRONICLES, will premiere in the Spring of 2003. Tone Rodriguez, penciller on the breakout comic VIOLENT MESSIAHS, from Image Comics, will draw the series in his trademark hyper-realistic, gritty style. When asked about what he thought of Tone's sketches Carpenter responded "They’re great. We’ve got a great artist here. I grew up with comic books, going way back, and I was always interested in the art. So I’m very delighted, very delighted." Hurricane Partner William O'Neill will write "Snake". William is best known as the co-creator of the hit series VIOLENT MESSIAHS and the fan favorite CHASSIS, a recent Wizard Magazine treasure chest pick. Jan Utstein-O'Neill, CEO of Hurricane, which produces the aforementioned comics, adds, "We are very excited at the potential of this project and the chance to work with such esteemed talent as John, Debra and Kurt. It's not often that you get the opportunity to take such a well known and an iconic figure as Snake and explore new adventures along with his Creators." The comic series, which begins "Early the next day..." continues the first story of Snake Plissken a once respected, highly decorated "Defender of the American Dream" who encountered a nightmare, the likes of which no one could ever image, or experience. What emerged is a man who is not a loner, but one who realizes that we are all, in fact, alone…and he is completely comfortable in this knowledge. Snake is a cool, dark and dangerous escape "Artist" - who always gets the last laugh, because he ultimately knows that the joke is on himself. This comic book is only one part of a much larger launch that will be revealed in the coming months. The deal was brokered and packaged by Kevin Cleary and Josh Morris of ACME Talent and Literary in Los Angeles. According to Debra Hill "Our goal is to brand SNAKE PLISSKEN like other movie or comic book icons such as Spider-Man, Batman and Superman starting with the new Comic from Hurricane. In addition to the comic, 2003 and 2004 will see a release of novels, a Japanese Anime feature and a video game. A new DVD collection of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK will be coming out next spring from MGM. It will feature missing footage, lots of new commentary and interviews from the original "Escapees" as well as some surprises that will make Snake fans very happy."The first step in this launch is a "Sneak Preview" book. This book, filled with Tone's gripping art and an exclusive interview with John Carpenter, will be available for the first time at the San Diego Comic Con. The San Diego Comic Con will be held at the San Diego Convention Center, August 1-4th and is the largest comic book related event in North America. Debra Hill, who's Writing and Producing credits also include the HALLOWEEN films, THE FOG and THE FISHER KING will be signing copies, along with Tone and William, on Friday, August 2nd at the Hurricane booth, # 1235c, come by the booth to check for exact times. JOHN CARPENTER'S SNAKE PLISSKEN CHRONICLES….Snake is back! - Fernando

French GOM Special Edition and new John Carpenter book

Tom Alaerts gives us the info on this

Also, I bought the French collector's edition of Ghosts of Mars. It has 2 DVD's (probably the sameas your limited edition set), the soundtrack CD and a great 300 page book detailing JC's career (actually an interview per film). I believe that I read somewhere that the book will also be available seperately in English. I believe (not sure) that the title of the book would be: John Carpenter, the prince of darkness.

As Tom points out, the book will indeed be available seperately and can be pre-ordered at Amazon:

July 25th 2002

Vampires 2 on DVD

As I mentioned before, although Vampires 2 (even diehard JC fans are saying it sucks) premiered on some obscure US cable channel it will have a DVD release:

Noticed somebody saying they were dissappointed Vampires 2 went on Cable and not DVD. Well fact is it is coming to DVD! Sept 24th 2002 in the U.S.A. Here is a link to buy it off Amazon.com. Just happy to help out fans of my favorite director. Wampa Dan.

Special Edition Dark Star?

I came across this on alt.movies.john-carpenter:

From: Michael Allred- As some of you might know, I helped get Dan O'Bannon hooked up with MGM for "The Return of the Living Dead" DVD (and headed the internet campaign) and recently I've done the same regarding Dan's first film, "Dark Star" (directed by John Carpenter.)
I'm very happy to be the first to announce that a NEW DVD for "Dark Star" will be released. Here is the letter I received from the president of VCI Home Video (the company that owns "Dark Star".)

--------

"Dear Michael, I wanted to let you know that I have spoken with Dan O'Bannon today and he confirmed he would be happy to help us on redoing the DARK STAR DVD. He was very busy but said he would call me on Monday to work out the details.
This is very exciting news and I don't mind if you want to be the first person in the world to announce on your website that we will be doing a new SPECIAL EDITION DVD, which will feature, at the least, a new digital anamorphic widescreen transfer - enhanced for 16x9 monitors. I'll keep you posted on more details as they are worked out.
I appreciate all your help in making this happen.
Best regards,
Robert A. Blair, President
vci entertainment"
-----------------

Fog DVD Reviews

Thankfully the upcoming FOG SE DVD is getting rave reviews, here are a few of them

DVD Review

DVD File

EFNY SE DVD

With all the excitement over The Fog DVD quite a few people have asked me what happened to the EFNY Special Ed and here is Simon with some great, great news. I have wanted to see the robbery sequence for so long:

Just wanted to alert you of the following, I have it on good authority that the Escape From New York SE is coming to R1 dvd in January-- INCLUDING the entire robbery/train escape sequence of which only a snippet was available for the SE LD.
Lifted the above from the ever reliable Digital Bits industry forum via The Digital Bits dvd site http://www.thedigitalbits.com/....look under dvd discussion for the forum link.
Sounds great, oh & by the way they have a great review of The Fog dvd with screen captures on the forum. Roll on August 27th!
Ciao Simon.

July 22nd 2002

JCs Next Project

Seems like the rumour about The Day of the Triffids remake is, as expected, probably untrue. However, the MOTM mailing list has some exciting insider info about JCs current schedule, here are the quotes from a bunch of the mails:

I have just received this mail from Carpenter's assistant - We haven't started a new project just yet but will in the future. Don't worry - he hasn't retired yet. Gina Assistant to John Carpenter - Matt

I just had a similar Email from Sandy King, also confirming that she and JC have not committed to any new projects. She's pushing for him to do a thriller or "modern day noir" which I think would be great. I love JC horror, but I think he's become a little trapped by the genre. I'd love to see his talents applied to a suspense film and a noir would be magnificient. - John

I remember by the time of ghosts of mars press, Carpenter said he was looking to do a kind of Thriller. Then came the September 11, and he told to a french magazine that, the studios because of that horrible disaster, would not be interested in financing the kind of films Carpenter does, they would interested in comedies, patriotic war films,etc, and JC wouldn't do that kind of commitment. - Marco

Vampires 2 staight to cable

So how's this for a shocker, John Carpenter's Vampires 2:Los Muertos (excuse the spelling) made it's uneventful debut tonight on cable tv.
Yeah I know, I was surprised. No theatrical (not that I expected one), but no video tape, dvd, or even pay per view release? Bon Jovi, although I'm not a fan of his music, is still a bankable star of some sort.
what's really surprising is with how little fanfare this movie crash landed on to cable. I mean I'm not even talking about a major network, this sucker isn't on HBO, ShowTime or Cinemax, hell, it's not even on one of the lesser networks like Encore or Starz. It's on the Action Network. How many of you even get the action network?
It repeats again at 2am so that's when I'm gonna catch but, but as things look, I have to be honest when I say I'm not really expecting a whole lot.
Matt

We still expect a DVD release but I am as surprised with Matt that it had its world premiere (remember, it is a sequel to a No. 1 US box office movie) on some obscure cable channel.

Review of The Fog Special Ed. DVD

DVD File has posted a review for THE FOG

UK Releases of the They Live and POD Special Editions

Check this out: http://www.dvdanswers.com/index.php?r=2&s=1 It says that They Live and Prince of Darkness will be released on 21st October, and cost £15.99. Sweet! At least we now get English covers instead of German ones. Joakim Hammarström Sweden

July 11th 2002

Another Halloween DVD

There are already 3 Anchor Bay DVDs of Halloween (the special ed. two disc and then each disc as a seperate purchase) so here is another one to get the cash out of my pocket. If it has the JC commentary I will definitely be buying it.

HALLOWEEN 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION - Fall 2003 It has been 25 years since Michael Myers first returned to Haddonfield. Now he returns to DVD for this special anniversary edition. Extras are still being determined, but expect a plethora of new goodies (i.e. audio commentary, etc.) for this exciting release. Expect more announcements in the coming months, and please note all features at this point are tentative and subject to change. Closed Captioned for the Hearing Impaired.

July 9th 2002

JC To Remake "Day of the Triffids"?

At last, a rumour of a new JC project. Unfortunately its an old rumour, but that does not mean it isn't true, confused? This months HOTDOG (UK film mag) has a new rumours section which reports that JC is attatched to direct the remake, with the action moved to the East Coast of the US and, get this, Kurt Russel starring. I don't know how much to trust this one. JC remaking a 50s classic again (already done The Thing and Village of the Damned), moving the action closer to home (already with Village... and also EFLA) and starring Russel. So you could say those three things could indicate it is good (that is, the rumour follows the trend of JCs previous productions) or indicate it is a crap rumour as it is deliberately mentioning JC staples. I really do not know about this one. The rumour states it is a "big budget" remake which makes me doubt it even more - who would give JC and Russel a bug budget for another remake after EFLA tanked so much? If anyone has any info on this please e-mail me.

July 7th 2002

POD and They Live Special Edition - More Ordering Details

Wow, I cannot remember the last time any one topic filled my inbox so much. Everyone wants to get hold of these fantastic new special edition dvds but they are tough to get outside Europe (see the details of 1a dvd below for info). Luckily Simon has been kind enough to pass me details of a place that does seem to deliver to the US. Usual disclaimers apply mind i.e. the site is nothing to do with me.

Check out the site a lot and find it the most up to date for info on John Carpenter. Ive found another site http://www.uoe.ch/ which has the new Region 2 They Live and Prince Of Darkness DVD's, they also ship worldwide which is handy for any folks who want to get them back in the USA. I ordered mine on Monday and got them today which is quick tho I am based in the UK. Anyways just thought I would pass the info on, keep up the goodwork on the website.

Note that if you buy them you will need a player that can play region 2 discs.

June 26th 2002

Body Bags DVD

Us Europeans are getting really spoiled (but ambassador, with these dvds you are really spoiling us!) for JC DVDs at the moment. You just have to buy the special editions of They Live, Prince of Darkness and the not-much-discussed-here Starman (contains a new JC audio commentary). A film really hard to find on DVD is BodyBags. There was a R1 release for a while but that seemed to come packaged with two other lame films and also had quite a few cuts I believe (weird that, as the thing was a TV movie). Geoff gives us some info on where we can get the disc

Recently a Dutch dvd-label released another region 2 disc of Body Bags. There are no extra's on the disc, but it's still a "must have" disc for JC fans, and like you said: it's a hard disk to track down. So if your interested check out: www.bridgeonline.nl . Jeffrey De Vore

I have bought it and can confirm it is a good transfer, with no extras. No idea if it has been cut mind but it looks fine to me.

June 22nd 2002

They Live and Prince of Darkness Special Edition DVD - Short Reviews

So I finally got hold of these new JC special edition DVDs from the Swiss website outlined below. As these discs were released by Kinowelt, a German company, the packaging is all in German so I now own Sie Lieben (They Live) and Die Fursten De Dunkelheit (sic) (Prince of Darkness). Nearly all the writing on the packaging is in German apart from, encouragingly, the listing of the "Making Of" special feature on the They Live disc. After seeing the packaging you might expect the disc menus to be in German (as on the Region 2 release of Body Bags on DVD, a very hard disc to track down) but credit to Kinowelt, they have gone to the effort of providing multi-language menus on each disc. So when you fire up the disc you choose your language and go to some very well design animated menus in that language. I am very impressed with these menus, as the original Region 1 releases of They Live and POD have static title screens. Both of these new discs have animated menus in keeping with the feel of the film. For example, on the They Live disc you move your pointer over a "Watch TV" message (in the black and white text of the slogans in the film) which changes, Hoffman lens style, into the message "Play Movie" to watch the disc. All of the menu screens for both discs feature relevant images from the film.
The They Live disc has a Making Of documetary that is about 8mins long and I believe was originally on the laserdisc version. It's one of those promo "behind the scenes" type things they use to hype new movies coming out but not as shallow as some of those can be (it is an original docu, i.e. from 1988, when They Live was released). It is interesting to note that the docu was made by Larry Sulkis who later co-wrote Ghosts of Mars with JC. The disc also has a few easter eggs, mini-docus profiling JC, Piper and Meg Foster. These are alright, but you get the feeling they made them Easter eggs because they are so short it might have seemed a bit cheeky to list them as special features. There is also an easter egg within these easter eggs that is a photo of JC and Piper when they recorded the commentary last year. It is amazing how different Piper looks. Again, the easter egg selection makes good use of the themed menus to really fit in with the feel of the movie.
The real reason most JC fans are busting for this disc is the JC and Piper commentary, which does not dissapoint. JCs commentaries always seem best when he has someone with him. This time the two come across as two guys chatting about the film they are watching rather than JC's sometimes dry solo commentaries. While not as funny as the classic JC/Russel commentary on The Thing it is great to hear these two guys reliving the fun they had making the movie. The picture on this disc looks great and the sound is in the original stereo. I really like this disc, I already owned the film-only region 1 DVD and this disc made me feel that forking out 20 quid for it again was worthwhile. The only gripe is the lack of the They Live trailer for some wierd reason.
Which is doubly strange when you realise that the only video extra on the Prince of Darkness disc is the original trailer, which successfully manages to make the film seem like an Alice Cooper vehicle. The commentary on this disc is done with Peter Jason, another welcome departure from a solo JC commentary. Peter is a long time JC colleague and friend and can be seen in Village of the Damned, Body Bags and They Live to name a few films other than POD. Again, this is a great disc that made my repurchase of this movie seem worthwhile. If you are a fan of these movies and/or JC I cannot recommend these discs highly enough. I hope some of JCs other lesser known movies such as Memoirs... and Village of the Damned might benefit from a great dvd release like this in the future.

June 12th 2002

The Thing Game - Press Release

Here is the official press release for the Thing game. It's in word document format. Sounds like a good party, the best thing must be that this means they are really going for the August release date. If you don't already know about this game scroll down the page to some earlier news stories with indepth analysis and links.

More on the European Special Edition DVDs

Quite a few US dwellers have been trying to find out how they can get these DVDs (I am in Europe) and Evelyn has been kind enough to share the useful info she found out:

Concerning the new release of They Live (w/commentary, documentary, etc.) and in reference to Chris's recent data (beginning June 3rd 2002) & yours - and speaking from/to an American perspective/audience (as well as our European Carpenter fan/friends!)...
After having read your updates, I checked with the very nice people at the Kinowelt website (www.kinowelt.de), did a little digging, wrote them an e-mail and received the following...
"We may supply this film [Sie leben! / They Live] to Germany, Austria and Switzerland, only. If you have a German address and a German account, it is no problem."
So they do carry the DVD, even though not advertised as of yet on their web site (as of .06.04.02) - but only to German, Austria and Switzerland markets. And you have to ask.
They also mentioned that the Company, "...Momentum Pictures" (www.momentumpictures.co.uk) will publish the new They Live DVD in autumn." (2002, assuming).
Concerning whether or not Momentum Pictures will make the DVD available to an American market, Kinowelt wasn't specific - although I believe this was their intention/meaning, as they knew I live in America & desired the DVD.

So that could be some good news for the US market. I don't know. I believe Momentum are a UK company so it could just be that they will get a UK release or a European release with English packaging. I did hear that licensing details mean these things are unlikely to ever get a US release but I could be very wrong on that one. The mouth of madness mailing list member Blake has this to share:

I recently sent an email to Carpenter's assistant. I asked her to tell me what she could about the over seas releases of Carpenter's films. She said that the Special Edtion of Star Man will probably come out here in the states sometime in the near future. She said she really doesn't know about They Live and POD, but she gave me the web address of the German company that released them in Europe.

So not exactly much useful info there. I bought mine from the Swiss company mentioned below (still waiting for them to arrive) and will give full reviews when I get them.

June 5th 2002

They Live and Prince of Darkness Special Ed DVDs

First up Christian Gensel gives us more info on the disc

I watched the new THEY LIVE disc on the big screen yesterday and, yes, the film looks & sounds great. I've never seen any Laserdisc or dvd versions of the film, so I can't tell whether there's much of an improvement, but it certainly looks much better than my old tape! The transfer seems to be very clear, rich in detail and with beautiful colors. The sound, although it's only stereo (I was hoping for a surround track), is clear, with a good low end.
By the way, my tape was a FSK 16 version, while the dvd is FSK 18, so it's probably longer than the old German version, too - although I couldn't spot any additional scenes (or violence, for that matter). It could be just a matter of a few seconds. Now that I think of it, maybe the FSK 18 rating is why the film's not available online. As far as I know, German online stores aren't allowed to carry FSK 18 titles ... but I'm not sure. If I find a source where you can obtain the dvd, I'll let you know. So, the only thing I haven't checked out yet is the audio commentary. I'll probably do that on Thursday or Friday. I'll send in some comments regarding the commentary, too. I wonder whether PRINCE OF DARKNESS is going to be released by Kinowelt, too? By the way, my full name is Christian Genzel - thanks for putting my info on your website.

Christian is right about the strange German censorship laws being the reason this disc is hard to get hold of online. He is also right that Kinowelt are doing the Special Ed of Prince of Darkness. My very greatful thanks to Owen Edwards for pointing me in this direction

Turns out the German DVD of They Live can't be ordered online from German sites because of some wierd censorship laws. But I found a Swiss DVD site - http://www.1a-dvdshop.ch/ that is selling it, and the Prince Of Darkness DVD with commentary. They come to about £40 (about 63 Euros) together including shipping.

I have already ordered mine. The site is in German and I cannot see an English translation on there but these online shops are all very similar so with some dilligence you should be able to navigate it even if you don't know German. Please note that I am not endorsing this shop so it is nothing to do with me. Don't come banging on my door if you don't like the service.

June 4th 2002

More on the They Live DVD

As promised, Chris came back with some updates on the disc and good news on the subtitles.

I've had a quick look at the THEY LIVE disc yesterday. Picture quality is very good, the film is in 1:2.35 format and looks great. Sound is Dolby Digital Stereo and sounds okay, I'll test it on a good system tonight. I haven't seen the entire film yet, just the first few minutes, but I'll watch it on the big screen tonight and let you know if the quality is okay all the way through. Oh, and the subtitles are removable! I watched the "Making of" yesterday, which is 8 minutes long and quite nice - with a couple of interviews with Carpenter, Piper and Meg Foster. There's also an easter egg with three 2½ minute profiles of Carpenter, Piper and Foster, but they repeat a lot of what's in the "Making of" - though there's some additional stuff in there, too. Oh, and there's another easter egg: a photo of Carpenter and Piper which was made after they recorded the commentary track - I wouldn't have recognized Roddy!

Sounds fantastic, please let me know the moment someone sees it available on-line

The Thing Game

I have raved about this excellent website before

They have an upcoming 20th anniversary cinema screening of the movie coming up and a direct line to developments on the new The Thing game. So the new (via Matt G on the Mouth of Madness mailing list) is

MORE news on the Thing Game:
You can check it all out at: http://www.artworks.co.uk/index2.htm
The Thing has been unleashed on the public for the first time at E3, and was shown off in a fully playable state on Vivendi Universal's stand. Running on Xbox, PS2 and PC, Computer Artworks were able to demonstrate all the coolest features of the game as well as the specific enhancements intended to take advantage of the technical capabilities of each of the platforms. Prior to E3, media attention for The Thing was already very good, but this new showing has only served to reinforce that, and justified all the previous claims that the game plays as good as it looks. John Carpenter was even on hand to sign game material and judge for himself that justice has been done to his original creation. To check out some of the great things being said about it, why not hop over to our dedicated Thing section right here on the site.

Good to see that JC himself is involved with the development so we can be sure we are going to get a game that puts across the right mood. Fantastic.

June 3rd 2002

They Live DVD hits the streets

The Special Edition of They Live has been released in Germany, as Christian lets us know

I just got the new THEY LIVE dvd containing the new audio commentary by Carpenter and Roddy Piper. The disc is a German region 2 dvd, released by Kinowelt - I actually vowed that I'd never buy a Kinowelt dvd again (I bought 15 MINUTES and they didn't state on the backcover that the subtitles in the English version aren't removable), but of course I had to get this one. The disc contains three languages - German, English, Spanish - all with Stereo sound (no Surround, unfortunately), widescreen. Apart from the commentary, there's a "making of". I just got it, so I haven't checked the disc out yet, but I guess I will do so soon and then let you know if the commentary is interesting. Strangely, I can't seem to find this disc online, not even Kinowelt has it listed on their homepage ... I found a copy in my local MediaMarkt (Salzburg). - Christian

As Chris points out, this doesn't seem to be listed online in any of the stores (I tried www.play.com and www.amazon.de for starters) and there is no mention of it on the Kinowelt website either (www.kinowelt.de). I am waiting for confirmation from Chris that the subtitles can be turned off when watching the English soundtrack version. If anyone finds anywhere it can be bought on the net then please let me know so that I can buy it myself and pass the info on.