News as of June 27th I got this through e-mail : in last sundays la times it interviewed briefly sheryl lee. she is a hooker vampire. shyam

News as of June 21st My sincere thanks to the New Mexico Film Office for replying to my queries about Vampires, here is the information they gave me : Vampires filmed in Las Vegas (NM) at the Plaza Hotel. They will also film in Cerrillos, Santa Fe, and at the Bonanza Creek movie set. The film is scheduled to wrap late July. So, has anyone seen any of this activity or likely to see it? A late July wrap could mean the Italian scenes will be shot later, rumours suggest we are looking at an early 1998 release for this film.
The Corona website report that Tim Guinee has joined the cast list, again, a direct quote from them : June 7, 1997... Daniel Baldwin, Maximillian Schell and Tim Guinee also join the cast. Schell will portray a Vatican Cardinal. Filming starts in Santa Fe this month. Looking to take a peek at the script? Try again - it's being closely guarded. [Scoops sent in by 'widgett', 'Gazza', 'Kilroy', 'theshape' and Herbert W. Sterns.]

News as of June 18th That IMDB entry for Vampires does have some interesting snippets. First off, Don Jackoby is not listed as being part of the writing team. This could just be an omission on the part of the IMDB. Sandy King is listed as a producer, this should be good news. She collaborated (script supervisor) with JC on They Live, Prince Of Darkness, Big Trouble... and Starman, all great films, so we should be in for something great here. She also produced Body Bags, Mouth Of Madness and Village... Oh yeah, there is also the small matter that her full name is Sandra Ann Carpenter, yep, she is JCs wife.

News as of June 17th After a little searching I have come up with some news (or rumours) on The Thing Special Edition laserdisc. This is basically a selection of articles from various Usenet groups, it is available here. There is also a listing for The Thing SE at the Universal laserdisc site. It is listed as still in production as of Jan 13th 1997.
From: scott: Vampire$ Update - Hello from New Mexico USA -- According to the press release from the New Mexico State Film Commission, Carpenter was supposed to start filming in northern New Mexico on June 2nd. He (Carpenter) says that he has wanted to film in the area for some time, and wants to create something he calls "Southwest Gothic"...Locations are around Santa Fe and Las Vegas, a small town north of Santa Fe. This is a mountainous area of the state, with quite a few turn-of-the-century buildings and some interesting sites such as the Montezuma Castle, a huge former luxury hotel which is now part of the campus of the United World College. Shooting is scheduled for eight weeks, though at the moment it is not clear exactly how much of that time will be spent in the area.

News as of June 11th The IMDB have a Vampires page up. No more info there yet than we already now.
To clear up some of the 'JC in Tarantino film' confusion. This months Total Film mentions that QT is filming JACKIE BROWN. The NME reported that JC had apparently shot a cameo for QT's new film, RUM PUNCH. Well, it appears that JACKIE BROWN and RUM PUNCH are the same thing. QT changed the title from RUM PUNCH (the original Elmore Leonard) novel to JACKIE BROWN. So, maybe the NME were right after all. The same magazine lists Vampires as evidence of a resurgence of the horror movie in Hollywood.
Some cast background info : The Sheryl Lee Fan Page, James Woods, Maximillian Schell

News as of June 5th From Bruce Dierbeck : Just thought I'd tell ya that Daniel Baldwin (last seen in TREES LOUNGE) has joined the cast. So has Maximilian Schell. Maximilian will play the Vatican cardinal who oversees the vampire eradication program. Filming starts next week, now. It should be good! The script is secretive, so this looks to be an interesting movie!

News as of June 3rd This is some stuff I cribbed straight from the excellent Corona Website on Vampires :
May 18, 1997... Sheryl Lee is announced as a cast member last week. Prinipal photography begins June 2nd in Rome and Canada. A recent ad appeared in Daily Variety annoucing Carpenter's directing/writing job. It showed a silhouette of a group of mean-looking commando types, which prompted 'shape' to say "it looked quite good." [Thanks to Christian, 'widgett', 'theshape', 'brightms', and anonymous.]
May 19, 1997... The lead character's name has been changed from John to Jack Crow. Vampires will also be shooting in Sante Fe, New Mexico. [Scoop submitted by 'theshape".]
Nothing really new there. I am not too sure about that last bit, the lead character in the Vampire$ novel is called Jack, seems strange they would change it to John and then back to Jack, unless JC intervened! That 'brightms' credited with some news is actually me. Fame at last.
The shooting should have started, has anyone got any inside info on the location shoots or maybe the SFX, behind the scenes work?

News as of May 22nd From The Snake Plissken Page : Hot on the heels of the successful Escape from New York paintball game comes Viper's new Escape from LA game! Check it out!
An interesting bit of info from Te, the owner of the John Carpenter Shrine : Lastly, there may be a new JC collectable on the market. A toy car company in the US, Johnny Lightning, has put out a set called Frightening Lightnings. It contains a number of movie related vehicles including a CHRISTINE. I haven't actually seen the car to confirm if it's directly from the movie. Anyone have any extra information on this?
The links above take you to a page with a picture of these cars, the sleek red terror that is Christine is definitely one of these. It looks pretty special. The cars seem to be some sort of Scalextrix type things, that sounds excellent.
An NME interview I have in the interviews section mentioned that JC had shot a cameo in the new Tarantino film but I did not have any more info. Brian Chaffin kindly sent me this info: There's a Variety article on the Quentin Tarantino, A God Among Men page (www.mind.net/nikko11) that reports that QT will start shooting his Rum Punch adaptation, which will be titled "Jackie Brown", this month. But I recently read an article in a magazine called Entertainment@Home that reports that it'll start shooting in June. If either of these are true then the Sep.'96 issue of New Musical Express is obviously wrong when it stated that JC had just filmed a cameo in Tarantino's Rum Punch adaptation. Maybe all 3 articles are wrong?

News as of May 21st I have just returned from holiday so I am catching up on loads of news.
James Woods (Oscar nominee this past year) has signed on to be the lead vampire hunter in VAMPIRES. It was reported in Daily Variety.(Bruce Dierbeck)
Extracted from Argentinian newspaper Clarmn: "James Woods arrived to Cannes to present his last movie "Kicked in The Head" and he said he had just signed a contract to film "John Carpenter's Vampires", the new horror movie by the master of the genre. The making will start in June and Woods will play a Vampire Hunter sent by the Vatican(...)" (Roughly translated by Francisco Pedemonte, from Argentina)
You probably already know this but I read in my twice weekly e-mail subscription for Zentertainment, the following (Mon. 12 May): VARIETY columnist Michael Fleming reports James Woods (Contact, Ghosts of Mississippi) has signed to star in director John Carpenter's horror-thriller VAMPIRES, an adaptation of the John Steakley novel of the same name. Woods will play a vampire hunter working for the Vatican. VAMPIRES, which has been in development for awhile now under the working title VAMPIRE$, begins shooting on June 2nd in Santa Fe, N.M. (Vas)
I saw in this months Fangoria, they have a little article about all the Vampire movies coming out and they have a (what I take is) a promo pic for JC's Vampires. It shows a man's face (which is mostly in the dark so who it is, I dont know) with a beam of light shaped like a dagger over his eye. Then at the bottom it says, John Carpenter's Vampires. Dont know if anyones already told you this or not, but I figured I'd tell you anyways. Its a pretty neat pic.(Tempus Fugit)
The John Carpenter shrine has this advert, available here.
The Aint It Cool site has come up trumps yet again with some more news on Vampires, I have quoted it directly here, this is all written by Harry himself : Fangs for the Memories! As John Carpenter's VAMPIRES picks up cast members (Sheryl Lee just joined up with James Woods) a spy is letting the bat out of the bag. Preacher Dan loaded up his crossbow and let loose with the coolness (attached to the crucifix bolt). Preacher Dan says that we are in for some severe vampiric violence. First off, it is about Jack Crow and Team Crow. Woods will be playing the lead, Jack Crow. Sheryl Lee will be an unlucky prostitute that becomes a sucker of a different bodily fluid. To give you an idea of the level of intensity for this project, Preacher Dan said that the Team Crow members are armed with crossbows with bolts that have steel cables attached to the rears of them. When a team member fires the bolt into a vampire, Preacher Dan says that the team member will notify another member to reel the vampire out of the abode and into the searing sunlight. On their way to death the vampires will attempt to grab onto immovable objects, only to have their limbs diminished until they are cinders outside. Very intense and very very cool, Preacher Dan says. By the way, if any of you get the Preacher Dan reference I'll be shocked.

News as of 29th April The advert below mentions Team Crow and Jack Crow, both names used in the Vampire$ novel by John Steakley. This seems to finally clear up the fact that John Carpenter's Vampires is based Vampire$.
The alt.movies.john-carpenter group has been created. It was created on the 28th April. It should be propgated across most news servers in the next few days. If the newsgroup does not appear on your news server then contact your news admin requesting the group be put on your news server.

News as of 28th April More info from Te: ... I've put up a scan of the Variety ad for VAMPIRES on my web page. ... you might be interested in. Just this week I got an ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK board game as a present. Don't know if you've ever seen one, but TSR (a US gaming company) put one out in 1981. Sooner or later, I'll be scanning the box of that ... The Vampires Advert

News as of 24th April JC is interviewed in this months Total Film. He discusses EFLA and his upcoming project Mutant Chronicles. This seems to be an old interview, hence the outdated reference to MC.

News as of 21st April Scream is released in the UK next Friday, go and see it! It is a homage to the classic slasher movies (Prom Night, April Fools Day, Friday 13th..., etc). It's main inspiration is, of course, Halloween. Halloween is watched at a party, one of the main characters is called Loomis, someone makes a joke about the situtation being like one of those 'Wes Carpenter' films... the little in-jokes are never ending. Go and see it, it is funny and also (crucially) scary.
From Te: ... as for the info on Vampires, I have the Variety and have also just borrowed the novel VAMPIRE$ by John Steakley. In comparing the ad copy with the novel synopsis, it's pretty obvious that the movie comes from the novel ...

News as of 18th April It seems the IMDB have an entry for John Carpenter as editor of Darkness, a low budget 1993 horror film. He is credited under the name John T. Chance, similar to the pseudonym he used on Prince Of Darkness (James T. Chance, John Wayne's character in Rio Bravo). I am pretty sure this is erroneous information, probably a mix up in the IMDBs cross links. The director (Jonker) is credited as writing, directing and producing, similar to the Eric Slee entry in the IMDB. Maybe JC has been working with a lot of new, young, indie directors recently?
A page on Amateur Movies has more info on Darkness. It is an amateur film, the directors first. The music was supposedly 'inspired' by John Carpenter, so the director is obviously a fan. Maybe he used a similar pseudonym as a sort of homage?
The b-movie web site has a page on Darkness, you can even but it from them if you want.

News as of 16th April I am trying to get a newsgroup started for the discussion of John Carpenter, it will be called alt.movies.john-carpenter I have posted a nomnination for this newsgroup in the alt.config newsgroup and would appreciate a few e-mails of support from the internet community. This newsgroup will enable the discussion of the films of John Carpenter and the rapid dissemination of any news people discover. If the creation is successful I will need support from people to make sure it is carried on news servers everywhere, so watch this space fore more information. Thanks for your time. MSB
And courtesy of the ever excellent Harry Knowles and his Aint-It-Cool-News page "VAMPIRES (directed by JOHN CARPENTER; LARGO ENTERTAINMENT) This film starts in April and I know of no cast members!!! It will be shooting in Canada and Rome,Italy. Ok. There is a Largo Entertainment person that reads this page a few times a day. Time to give back dude. I wanna know. By The Way it is "VAMPIRES not Vampire$ according to all production info including a two page ad they took out in Variety a month or two ago. Fill me up with your coolness. WHO IS IN IT!?!?!? ". Whew, starts shooting in April. Maybe we are looking at a Autumn/Christmas release time? At least this project has got further than Mutant Chronicles.

News as of 15th April I have some snoop information on Vampire$, its actual title will be Vampires. 'While the projects plotlines do seem similiar it has not been confirmed, and according to a two page ad a couple of months back on the project it will be titled Vampires. So go figure.' Does anyone have a copy of this two page advert? So, it may not be based on the Steakley novel after all. Anyone have any extra info on this?

News as of 15th April This is quoted straight from the Halloween : A Terrifying Look At Micheal Meyers page, so kudos to them : FINALLY! There may be new developments on a new Halloween movie! Yesterday, I received a phone call from a man that told me he spoke to Jamie Lee Curtis and she told him that there is a "secret" deal that puts her in a new Halloween movie with John Carpenter directing it! Except, he says that Jamie Lee Curtis told him that it will take place as like a Halloween 3 pretending that H3-6 never did happen. This way Laurie Strode is still alive. But, she went on to tell him that it's very hush-hush right now and that it's not known to very many people. Now, for all I know, he could be fibbing. I don't know for sure, but he sounded VERY convincing and he said that I would be smart to report it on my page.
Think about it. In an interview that was in a magazine back in July/August, John Carpenter said that he had not ruled out the possibility of doing another Halloween if there were some things done. First off, John Carpenter said that he would only do it if Miramax was NOT involved. Think about it, for the past six months or so the Akkads have been in litigation to get the rights AWAY from Miramax. Could this be to clear the way for John Carpenter? He then said that he would want Jamie Lee Curtis back and that he'd just write it as though H3-6 never happened. That's what this rumor claims as well. He also told the magazine that he would want a nice sized budget (not to mention a paycheck). So, is this true? I guess we won't know until 1998. Jamie Lee Curtis told this man that the movie would be released in 1998...20 years after the original. Maybe we'll find out if this is true or false later this year if they ever make anything publically known. Now, I'm taking a chance reporting this because I don't know for sure if it's true or not. But, it doesn't hurt to report it since he sounded convincing. Malek denied this back about four months ago but I plan on calling him up this week asking him if he could flat out deny or confirm this announcement. Keep checking back for more developments. Lets hope it's true and not false! Remember where you heard it first!
As you've read, Carpenter's assistant says it would cost AT LEAST $15 million as his salary. So, that kinda shoots our aspirations in the ass! But, rumor has it that Miramax is still trying to nab Carpenter for Halloween 7. They also want Jamie Lee Curtis, so lets see how everything goes.
That would definitely be an interesting development, I would love to see JC direct one final, as in finale, Halloween film. I really don't think it will happen but who knows?