All quotes and info from other sources are in Italics, all other text is my own reflection on the news. The John Carpenter News Archive :

News as of March 31st Another Vampires Picture As reported in various places this really cool pic has appeared in numerous magazines, and was supplied by the ever vigilan Tom Alaerts -

News as of March 30th Finally, The News The US Has Been Waiting For This is hot news straight from a most reliable source - "Just got the news from Largo that the film has been sold to new indy distributor, Destination Films for release in the US. "Vampires" will be their first release. In order to acquire the film, they had to beat out offers from majors including Columbia and Fox. While we don't know the financial details yet, the Fox offer had been for almost the entire budget of the picture. Expect to see press releases later this week. So far, we don't know their plans for the release, but are supposed to meet very soon. Will keep you posted." I am really glad to see that it has been sorted out. It sounds like the bidders for this movie had some idea of the 'buzz' going around. As the news says, this is Destinations Films first release, it will be interesting to see how they push the film. So, now we wait for the latest on the actual release date.
Vampires Trailer It's not available on-line yet, but let's hope so soon. Anyway, Tom Alaerts has scanned a load of pictures from it for us, so I'll hand you over to him - "It's your bat-winged messenger again. I discovered the Vampires trailer on the CD-ROM of the new issue of Cinelive. It is a 14Mb mpeg file... I made some screenshots to satisfy the impatient. Keep in mind that the quality of the screenshots is much less good than when you see the images moving. Anyway, I selected pics that extend the collection on the news page. The music throughout is similar to what you've heard, but some typical nervous jc rhythms are added. Here's my description of each pic:

ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT LARGO ENTERTAINMENT, JOHN CARPENTER and anyomne else involved with JOHN CARPENTER'S VAMPIRES.

- hands.jpg: from the beginning of the trailer. Crow is talking to another passenger in his pickup: "Have you ever seen a vampire? They're not romantic. Forget everything you've seen in the movies. Crosses don't work. If you want to kill one, drive a wooden stake right through it's heart...". Intersected with this is the image of the (rising) hands and also of vampires coming out of the sand (well-known by now).

- fromjc.jpg: the "ISO-9000 quality label" appears... now we have a part that deals with the start of the movie (see my other photomontage)

- oldhouse.jpg: "I think we've got a nest here..."

- explore.jpg: team Crow carefully explore the old building.

- corpse.jpg: a dusty old mummified body causes some cheap scares... #

- shoot.jpg: they fire to kill or wound a vampire. One of the shootists hits the vampire with an arrow, which is attached to a cable. "We got a fish. Go! Go! Go!"

- cable.jpg: the cable is wound using the Jeep outside.

- fire.jpg: and this happens when the the unlucky vampire is dragged outside using the cable. I believe the next few images are from the motel raid:

- headoff.jpg: Valek knows how to deal with annoying people.

- scared.jpg (a follow-up to my older ceiling.jpg pic): poor Sheryl Lee looks scared.

- lee.jpg: Sheryl Lee...

- bigjump.jpg. Who said Vampires was western-like? Valek has probably learned his big jumps by studying Hong-Kong kung-fu movies! There was also a short introduction text to the movie. It seems that Crow, when a child, had seen how a vampire killed his parents. So that's his motivation. Mmmmhhh, this sounds a bit like the unhappy childhoods of Batman and other caped crusaders. The magazine also featured a short interview with JC. Mostly the typical questions, the typical answers. But here is the one part that that you will LOVE to read (excuse my clumsy re-translation): Q: Is there a myth left you would like to direct? A: I always wanted to make my own Frankenstein, but I don't know how I could better what's already made. However, I am really more interested in the Frankenstein story than in vampires. It is a more modern person. Creation with a big "C" is a very fascinating idea. When I find how to adapt it, I will do it. Otherwise, I would like to make a thriller but I have no story yet. Just some images. We'll see..." There's also a table in the mag with each reviewer's ratings about the films of the month. Vampires got: 2 times watchable, 2 times very good, 2 times excellent-don't miss (no masterpiece rating, which is the highest rank in cinelive, is given) OTOH, the Mad Movies table was as follows: 3 times very good (which must be between very good and excellent from the other mag) and 1 time masterpiece. So, all in all, it seems this will be JC's best rated pic in quite some time. Let's hope it will attract audiences. "

News as of March 27th New Zealand Release Date I don't know why I am posting this as I got it from alt.movies.john-carpenter, a newsgroup I am sure you all read regularly. Anyway, here is the scoop, posted by Oggy Doggy " My friend who works in the local cinema, says that the flick : J.C's Vampire$ will be distributed by REP an indy distributor (I think) around July/August?l" Seems like everyone in the world is going to see this pic before the US, of course, this New Zealand date is unconfirmed at the moment.
They Live On DVD Thanks to everyone for telling me about this, the overally feeling is that this new DVD is fantastic, to quote Brian - "hey i just got the they live dvd yesterday and it is excellent, the movie is even better in widescreen than it already was in pan and scan, really good transfer i thought, the only drawback is that there was no extra stuff on the dvd. prince of darkness is still due on april 1st hopefully it will be as good ive also heard that starman and in the mouth of madness will come out on dvd within the year, maybe even more of carpenters movies as well i hope, especially the thing signature edition".

News as of March 26th Vampires Review Well, it had to happen. After three glowing reviews of Vampires we get our first negative. Although even this 'negative' reviewer had some very good things to say about the movie, he did not trash it at all. It is only one person's opinion and it does not change my (or I suspect anyone else's) anticipation for this JC movie. I still think it is going to be fantastic, anyway, here is the review, submitted by Matt - " I have been sitting on this news for a couple of days, reluctant to release it. An associate of mine ... gave me the report from the American Film Market where he sat through a screening of JC's Vampires. This friend, whose opinion I trust highly, loves Carpenter and loves the genre. Now far be it from me to put the kibosh on all the good reviews coming into the site on the film, but this one wasn't so positive. He told me that Vampires is a very good looking, well produced film, full of nice effects, and shot in a very wide screen format (probably anamorphic 2.35:1), which is so far typical Carpenter. But he went on to inform me that on the whole the film was very disappointing. James Woods wasn't much of a leading man and that the film is more a combination of From Dusk Till Dawn meets Captain Kronos (if you know what I mean) than The Wild Bunch. Relying heavily on Dusk Till Dawn. He said it was chock fill of gimmicky little devices that the hunters use and the writing and story were very weak. For JC to do a great looking, but overall weak film is... dare I say? Not to far out the realm of possibilities. Especially when one considers his last few releases. But on the other hand I suggest we all reserve our own opinions until we see Vampires for ourselves and no matter what we hear, go out and support the man for the work he has done and hopefully will continue to do." So there it is, I definitely take it with a pinch of salt primarilt because I find it hard to believe that James Woods, easily one of my favourite actors, could do anything other than light up the screen. In the small clip I have seen Woods has just the right 'hard-edged' quality. Anyway, as Matt says, let's all wait until we see it ourselves for the judgement. To recap - 3 extremely positive reviews and 1 slightly negative. Oh yeah, Harry Knowles (aint it cool news) has been saying that Dimension films have picked up the movie. I think Harry is still going by the old reports, my sources still confirm that even thought it is close, no distribution deal has been sorted out yet.

News as of March 23rd The New Server The move to the new web server should now be complete, giving me lots more space to put up pictures like those featured today. Please update any links/bookmarks ASAP as the old 'moved to a new server' message pages will not be up forever.
New Mad Movies Stuff The newest issue of Mad Movies (March) has a load of pictures and a new JC interview. Tom Alaerts has scanned the pictures for us and promises some snippets from the interview in the future. All pictures are (c) John Carpenter, Largo Entertainment and anyone else involved with John Carpenter's Vampires and any publications mentioned. Tom Says "so I rushed to a newspapershop yesterday evening and YES - the new mad movies was there. I didn't scan all the pics (some were similar to the ones you already have), just the most significant ones. here's my comment for each pic (my favourite is ceiling.jpg):

cover.jpg: the cover of Mad Movies shows a very pissed Valek

ceiling.jpg: Look up! Look up!

jcandsl.jpg: 2 vampires. Uhmm. No. The right one is JC.

vampsand.jpg: a vampire rising from his dusty grave... " Those pictures are pretty fantastic.

News as of March 19th New Web Server The JC Web Page is in the process of moving to a new server, circuits.cf.ac.uk This page you are currently reading is already there, I hope to make the transition as smooth as possible with lots of pages pointing you in the new direction. Don't update your bookmarks just yet, I will let you know when then move has finished. Please let me know if any problems you encounter.
Escape From NY a National Enquirer Scare? (Ok, I know, very bad heading, but it is early in the morning). Tom Alaerts found out this funny info "I was reading an article about the american tabloid "National Enquirer" .... there was a nice part that described the village at the east coast where the offices were located, not really in the middle of nowhere but certainly not in a big city as you would expect. Well, it turned out that they actually were located in NY during the seventies. But then the founder saw EFNY, and became paranoid and convinced that indeed, low-life thugs would take over NY and make him hostage. So he moved the company! Actually, he first wanted to move to an island, but since it was before the computer, email, and faxes, this wasn't feasible. Ahhh, the power of film..."
New Vampires Article As usual the French are running away with the best JC coverage, this was found by Etienne Barillier " The latest issue of the French Magazine "Mad Movies"(#112) has a "Vampires" cover ! Inside you can find 8 pages packed with interviews and pictures: 5 pages are dedicated to an in-depth interview with John Carpenter, one to Sandy King (producer & wife), one to Greg Nicotero (makeup). There is a long criticism stating that : - it's his best movie since "They Live" - it's a really scary movie (not a "Scream" like movie, an ironical one) - "(...) what he tells us is the story of a man loving a woman eaten by evil. A man ready to follow his love until night and destruction. The message is dry, brutal and dark. The vampires are frightening, the heroic behaviour is still there, the tough guys are still Nike Furys and whatever happens we'll love those westerners untill the end. But at the end of the road, Carpenter never forgets that the raison d'etre of fantastic is upon all to stare at death. The only real terror." Sounds fantastic, I have heard nothing but positives about this movie.
They Live We Sleep When John Nada slips on those old sunglasses of his there is nothing that escapes his steely gaze. This time he has managed to gather together a whole load of thoughts from some of the principles involvbed with Vampires. Listen up people, cos ther is some Very Interesting stuff about distribution. "

Sheryl Lee on getting into her role as Katrina "I start to dream as them. That's a very good sign that the character is becoming a presence with me. I would dream that there were vampires after me, or that I was a vampire, that was the most fascinating one for me. They weren't really erotic dreams, more to do with the supernatural powers that the vampires have in our film. In one of those half-awake, half-asleep states, I actually ran my tongue across my teeth and felt fangs. I kept doing it again and again thinking the would be gone, but they didn't go away. But in the morning they were gone."

From Thomas Ian Griffith- talking about working with Carpenter

"You hear a lot about really great directors, that the movie is made in their heads before the camera starts. That's John. I'd do my thing, he'd watch a couple of times and then very specifically set up the camera angles and lights, and we'd do it. He's a man of very few words, but all of them count"

Sandy King

On casting James Woods "One of the things about being a producer, especially for John, is that he is open to doing something unexpected. James Woods, when you cast him, brings an expectation. He plays bad guys really well and I thought it interesting to bring that hardness that he's known for and to make him an anti-hero protagonist."

On the idea of casting Kurt Russell

"Kurt was never a consideration, and it wasn't the budget. You cast someone like him and he brings the budget with him. The budget just goes up as much as his salary because they know he will bring at least that much extra at the box office. If we had thought he was the right person, we would have had the money to use him. We felt James Woods was the right guy. And we were right."

On VAMPIRES having not found a distributor

"Every company has a life that is totally outside your movie. Largo, I believe, and I don't know their corporate in's and outs, but they seem to be at a crossroads in their corporate history. I believe the decisions on the sale of VAMPIRES are based on those corporate changes, not on the film. columbia has a good offer on the table, so does Fox. There were offers before the film was finished."

So, the distribution deal, as I have said time and again, is not a problem with the movie. It is a business dealing thing. So, I am saying this to the people at Largo, please, please get this sorted out. This film has a huge buzz surrounding it and will be JCs biggest hit for years. Get this film out there now!

News as of March 11th Dimension Films Rumours The mysterious secret agent was able to give us some comments on the state of distribution of Vampires, some of it directly from the highest source. As of a few days ago no distributor was set, but Dimension films was mentioned as one of the possibles/rumours. So still no distributor set but it is edging closer to a deal all the time.
Vampires Mpeg Movie A while back I mentioned a clip of Vampires that was made available on a French CD-ROM. I have seen the clip, it is fantastic. Unfortunatley it is an 18MBytes file, so I can't put it up on the website. But, the next best thing has been provided by Tom Alaerts, a snapshot walkthrough of the clip -

Okay, here's the story:

So, that is the clip. I want to thank Tom for providing us with such a stunning walkthrough. All images are copyright Storm King Productions and Largo Entertainment.

News as of March 5th Vampires Distributor? Chris has come across this news which I hope is true "According to the latest Fangoria, VAMPIRES has been picked up by DIMENSION films for distribution. Still no release date set." Hopefully this means Vampires very soon.
Meltdown This from Matt G "This just came into my office: MELTDOWN is a go. A company named August Entertainment has posted a notice in Hollywood that they have begun pre-production on Meltdown. Co-scripted by John Carpenter and John Dahl (The Last Seduction) and to be directed by a Heede Jong(?). It is listed as action/adventure."
Scream Queen Chris also noticed that "Janet Leigh is playing a small part in Halloween 7. "

News as of March 3rd Halloween - Myers in Waterworld? Matt G noticed this strange title for Halloween 7 "Dimmension Films is advertising the next Halloween film under the title of... HALLOWEEN: H20. The silliest tile since JC appeared in Silence of The Hams. I just sincerely hope H20 stands for Halloween 20 th aniversary and not Halloween: The Water Edition."
JC On Canal+ Etienne watched this interview with JC and has the following to say " He talked about "Vampires", of course. The movie will be out by April, 15th. An extract was shown, with the killing of a couple of monsters. The scene was quite disturbing, with the sadistic acting of James Woods ("die!... die!..." he yells while killing a vampire with a wooden stick). John Carpenter talked about westerns, the Wild Bunch, and so on. He went also onto politics, saying that, yes, he's definitely not the politicaly correct kind of guy as he smokes, drinks and talks dirty!... "Subversive" is the word most used! He was quite at ease, making jokes and smiling a lot. He talked a little about Kurt Russel. He even thanked Wes Craven, for his "Scream2" hommage to "Halloween" and even recommended some of his own favorites movies : Halloween, the Thing and They Live ! "
JC At The Drive In Chris sent in this news "I came across a neat video called AFTER SUNSET: THE LIFE & TIMES OF THE DRIVE- IN THEATER. It features extensive interviews with Sam Arkoff, Joe Bob Briggs, and one John Carpenter!! It was produced in '95/96. J.C. has a lot of neat things to say (he lost his virginity at a drive-in!) and it seems his segments were shot in his home office by the look of things. VERY COOL. It's worth searching out. "
The Thing On DVD No one quite knows what is going on with this (as an aside, Patrick Kerr's The Films Of John Carpenter site concentrates a lot on JC LD and DVD news, so check it out regularly if you want this info) - this is what Brian Peterson managed to find out " i wrote to the universal web site about the thing and this is the reply i got:> >"Once the program is completed, I'm sure it will eventually be issued on DVD. However, I have no release information which indicates it will be any time soon."
Vampires Multimedia CD Tom Alaerts gives us the info on this "This weekend I found the french CineLive magazine which also includes a cd-rom with trailers, interviews, the like. I bought it because there was a preview fragment of vampieres on the cd ..... the GREAT 2 min. fragment: it is from the beginning of the movie: - a desert, you see a priest blessing Crow's team - Crow basically says "okay, I think we've got a nest here. I guess 6 ghouls and maybe a master. Any questions? No? Let's go" - then they walk towards the shack. music comes up here, i specially mention this because the music is different from what you expect of JC compositions: lots of slide guitar sounds that overlay the thumping bass. In a way, it seems more like a Ry Cooder soundtrack, which is no bad thing of course. It also resembles a bit the music at the start of They Live which also features guitar. - with some difficulty they open the door. there is some noise of blowing wind. The interior of the shack is dark and foreboding.

this is the end of the clip, so i saw some 1/45 to 1/50 of the movie.

noteworthy: as some people (who saw the complete movie stated) already stated: editing is a lot quicker than typical for jc movies, with cameras used from more angles simultaneously. However, the widescreen looks as good as ever And the way the team walk to the shack is really "wild bunch"-like." That sounds really cool and could be the first chance many of us will have to see a clip of Vampires.
Vampires Review 3 Well, someone did sneak into the AFM showing of Vampires and posted a review to Aint It Cool News - " ...one of the best JOHN CARPENTER films in a long time, the film VAMPIRE$ with James Woods, Daniel Baldwin, Sheryl Lee, Thomas Ian Griffith, Maximilian Schell, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa with a great score by the master himself. This movie is certainly among the top five of John Carpenter's films. The story is very tongue-in-cheek with some great dialogue and James Woods at his best. This is one of the hottest films at the market and Largo should be making a killing with this one. I don't have the time to go into details about the storyline. I just have to say it is a little jewel among all those bad films that are shown at the AFM this year." So we now have three totally positive reviews, fantastic!

News as of Feb 27th Late Update : JC French Press Conference The man is back, Snake Plissken is still keeping tabs on his old buddy JC, this time following him to France for a press conference - " Sandy King said the official site will be online in about a month. The countdown is on ! The official retrospective will be at the french cinematheque from 15 to 30 april. (in time for the release of Vampire). All his movies will be shown in widescreen in original english, including the one he produced & wrote and the TV body bags.
A book is also coming, MYTHES ET MASQUES, LES FANTOMES DE JOHN CARPENTER by Luc Lagier & Jean Baptiste Thoret, 336 pgs, 260 frs (about 26 £, ouch !). It's basically a long JC interview with more, according to the press release.
Carpenter said he doesn't surfs, but his son have shown him the Webpages dedicated to him... but then, he moves on to the X-Rated stuff ! Arf !" The book is good news, it has been mentioned on this site before. So, JC has checked out the websites, that is really cool news. So, Patrick, Mohammad, Erik and I (amongst others) have actually had our stuff seen by JC.
JC Live On TV I think this is on a French channel, I'll let Etienne give you the details " John Carpenter will be on C+ tomorrow (Friday) (18h30)... " It is today (Fri 27th Feb). Let's hope a load of people watch it and give us the lowdown.
More Sentinel News Thanks to Dan for getting us this info " PC Zone magazine has an article on Sentinel Returns. ... this to say regarding JC : Above all, Sentinel Returns is incredibly tense, and the John Carpenter soundtrack only enhances the claustrophobic and frightening atmosphere. Carpenter, the brilliantly talented director of (insert stream of Carp' movies) had never been any where near a computer game soundtrack in his life, simply because no one had ever asked him. So when the Cook (John Cook, owner of the company "No Name Games" who are producing the sentinel) approached the Carpenter, the Hollywood legend was delighted to oblige. With the deal signed, he was then left alone to create. As John Cook says "you don't tell John Carpenter how you want it done"
Feb 28th? As most if you know, tomorrow was the night that Vampires was rumoured to be premiering in the US. Seems a bit strange that none of us notice that this would be a Saturday, a strange day for a film to premiere. Anyway, still no news on a US release date or distribution company.
New Vampires Picture Just before midnight Captain Blake was wrapping on my door. I went to answer it but just as I got there my clock smashed. Strange.... anyway, I found this fantastic pic on my doorstep -

News as of Feb 24th Mr Anonymous Source (yep, him again) dropped in some interesting news, first off is The Vampires Stuff " Vampires will be shown here in the United States sometime during the week of February 26th to March 6th during the American Film Market. This huge convention is basically for all the mini production companies, like Largo, to come, have a screening for their film to all those interested in distributing it. Anyone who has a film for sale is at this thing, hawking their product at screenings. It takes place at the Loews Santa Monica Hotel. The main phone number for this hotel is 310-458-6700. Now understand that I can't professionally condone this, but a Carpenterphile nobody just might be able to sneak into this screening while posing as a somebody. " Good scoop there, but I second Mr Source in not condoning anyone trying to sneak into this showing.
The Thing Special Ed - What's Going On After discussing Vampires the skies began to darken, I am not happy with this news " The Signature Collection Laserdisk of John Carpenter's The Thing is, well in a word, not doing well. Frustrated by little or no word from Universal, I got a hold of a company who helps Universal out in the production. They told me, "John Carpenter's The Thing is still stuck in a supplemental quagmire, struggling to get completed." What does this mean to us? We'll be lucky if it's released before the millennium. " That is a real blow, can't Universal see how popular this is going to be?

News as of Feb 20th Vampires Review 2 Let me tell you something, when a guy with an eyepatch asks you outside for a game of Bangkok rules you don't hang around. I managed to dodge the homicidal interlude to snag a chat with Snake Plissken, who has been keeping an eye on the developments of JCs latest movie. He had this to say about a press screening he saw - "I saw the movie yesterday ... I loved it ! First, as Carpenter said, it is definetly a Western vampire movie. You do have every western cliche transposed into modern day :
- These guys chase vampires like cow-boys chase indians. - Vampires acts like indians, sneaking up when we least expect them. - These guys drinks and hassles women/whores like cow boys in a saloon. - Indians/vampire hide in the sands, and comes out at twilight - The ghost mexican town etc...
It starts with great SPOILER FREE shots of the deserts at twilight or dawn, with a Carpenter synth soundtrack that stick you to your seat. You know already it's gonna rock, and rock hard : heads blown up, people riddled with bullets, victims cut out in half, vampires staked thru the heart at close range, burned by the sun etc...

This movie is a catalog of every gruesome way to kill, and it does so with a sort of childish relish. There are many funny scenes all along, including Woods, always mouthing at everything and everyone, a psychopathic, but sympathetic Vampire Hunter. Carpenter manages to actually makes us almost believe Vampires actually do exists, and that the Catholic Church has commandos hunting and tracking them. It's a plus. In the middle of all these explosions and gunfighting (all done on a low budget, mind you, but very stylishly so), He takes time to set the reality of it all. Visually, Carpenter have changed. There are almost no long master shots anymore. He usually cover the scene with 4 to 8 cameras, and plays with it in the cutting room. The result is a fast paced kinetically cut movie, with many shorts shots. Sometimes, the photography and light isn't the same from shot to shot in one scene, but you don't notice it if you're not looking for it, and it works. It is way better cut than EFLA. For example, I love this early two shots of Wood, dark glasses on and crossbow in hand, panagliding on his face intercut with another similar panaglide on the house he is about to raid. I loved Carp earlier work because those camera shots panaglide actually made me jubilate. At last, I was seeing a beautifully shot movie, where the camera was used to create an emotion. Like Plissken running away from the crazies in the dark alley, remember ? The music helped create a distinctive signature style & mood, and here you have it back, only in an evoluted fashion, much faster and quicker. I think, like the other guy says, that the climax suffers from lack of action too. At one point, the soundtrack actually features gunfire sound when you actually do not see anyone firing. it is clear Carp tried to hype it up in the editing stage, because he lacked funds. The ending disappoint because it's way not elaborated after all you've seen before, but overall, it certainly ranks with the best Carpenter stuff, thought your girl friend may not like it at all. To scale it : better than Fog, EFLA, INVISIBLE MAN, or POD, not quite EFNY or Assault or Halloween, or the Thing, but great pace and great fun. Carpenter does not need to shoot a real western, this is the closest he has come to. " Another fantastic review, everything we have been discussing for ages seems to have come together, JC has delivered a fantastic film. Good to see another comments on the different techniques that JC seems to have used. From my point of view JC is famous for his 'wide angle' compositions, so it'll be interesting to see a different style on this movie. In reaction to this Snake said "...by wide, I mean usually Carp used long (30-50sec) shots in his early movies, he did not cut everything MTV style, now he does so. I wasn't talking about frame composition, but duration of shots."
Vampires Review! Thanks to everyone who pointed this one out, Harry Knowles Aint-it-Cool-News website has run a review of Vampires that has left me drooling, this is the info - "He's seen John Carpenter's VAMPIRES! Says it's an "...awesome flick" Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I want to see this baby now! Show me show me show me. By the way, how come Carpenter isn't with DIMENSION FILMS like Craven and Rodriguez? Hmmmm, food for thought.

I saw the movie at an early screening. No spoilers here, just to say : You wanted action packed super thrills, an awesome flick by Carpenter. You got it ! His best since Big Trouble in Little China IMHO. A Carpenter heart beat score, the P.O.V. shots, no beautiful wide master shots, but many quick cuts edited verrrrryyy well, ala Desperado, wide, close, closer, Blam, blood, head flying, corpses cut out in two, shit, it blow from dusk till dawn away ! 'Dialogue thrown from the actor's mouth of such gut wrenching coolness that you say it for years with that same raspy sound ?' Yes ! Wood is a little too foul mounthed IMHO, but you will love it. Full of gore, some funny scenes like the master vampire killing everybody at a party or the Vampires getting burned, the small budget can be felt sometimes, and the ending is a little disappointing (not enough gunfights, and the baddie [HARRY EDITED FOR YOUR OWN SANITY]). The scenes of the Vampires coming out of the earth is spine chilling. The score is cool, the opening credits just spells "this is gonna be cool, not like my latest movies guys". In short, COOL COOL COOL COOL CARPENTER !!!" That is every thing we wanted to hear, thank God Harry edited out the spoiler about the ending. C'mon Largo, get this film out there!
French Premiere Date This was sent in by Etienne, a regular contributor of great info "Vampires" will be out in France April, 15th. (from Premiere magazine)... John Carpenter should do a talk show on Canal Plus feb., 22th. ! "

News as of Feb 17th Just a minor update cos I am very busy today. Patrick Kerr's extremely cool The Films Of John Carpenter site has all the latest info on the imminent JC DVD releases in his News and Updates section.
We want Jack Burton! If you find yourself shouting that out while polite company look at you in a strange way, then you should get on over to Falcon's Big Trouble In Little China Page. You see, Falcon is compiling a petition to have a sequel made to the cult classic and he needs us all to contribute our names and any thoughts we might have on the sequel.

News as of Feb 16th Major Vampires Update Okay, I know I have told you before that I have had 'the word' on Vampires from various industry insiders. Well, this is the big one. Completely undisputable facts that come from a very well placed source. There is no doubt about it, these are the facts - " The February release date never was. This may have come from some confusion over the Fantastica Festival at Gerardmer. We did not go to Gerardmer because we never told anyone we were going...Largo apparently did without asking us about it. There was no big reason for not going except that we were tired and then John had a hellacious bout with the flu. Instead, we are going to Paris next week to do press for the premier in April. We have had no censorship problems, much as I'm sure that lets some folks down. No scenes have been cut out of the movie. It has been rated "R" by the MPAA. Of course there's blood...they're vampires for Christ's sake...it's the nature of the beast, so to speak. The American distribution situation is a function of Largo's business decisions having to do with mergers and partnerships that have nothing to do with "Vampires". Bids were submitted by Fox, Sony, Live and MGM, among others. It's Largo's decisions about their catalogue and future as a company that are the deciding factors at this point. The photo of Jimmy with the cross is .... a pivotal plot point in the movie." So, facts - Vampires will premiere in France in April; The Feb US release date was never official. The last statement refers to a picture I posted last week, which I have now removed as I am anxious to not spread any spoilers (and I am sure everyone else out there will agree). The same source comments on The Reshoots : "Regarding the reports of our shooting in the Plaza in Santa Fe: 1. We never shot in the Plaza in Santa Fe. 2. Principal photography took place from June 2, 1997-August 4, 1997 in Santa Fe, N.M. 3. The only reshoots took place for 3 hours the first week of October when we reshot an insert of a portrait of Valek that we hadn't liked and an insert of a hand pulling the trigger of a shotgun. 4. The film was delivered to Largo on December 24 th...10 release prints were already sent to distributors in Europe over a month ago. It's done...it's complete...it's over, okay?" Just to put icing on the cake, here is the same source commenting on the Sentinel Computer Game "Yes, John DID score the upcoming video game, "The Sentinel Returns" for Psygnosis. No particular reason other than that they asked him to and he thought it was cool. He is an avid video game player." I urge everyone to keep a lookout for that game, not just for the JC connection but it is also a fantastic game.
The Official JC Website The same source (I know, I have been spoiled) has cleared up something that us net folks have been anxious about for a while- "The John Carpenter web site should open a little later this year. Eventually it will include "domains" covering all the films and projects. Since we're a sitting target, I have to be careful about all the legal clearances on use of materials from each studio and it's taking an ungodly amount of time to make it through the legal morass. I'll let you know when it's getting close."
'Official' Vampires Pictures A lot of pics have been flying around the web (quite a lot from my site) of the new JC movie. I like t give credit to the proper sources (people are working their butss off out there) so here are the credits for all the pictures I have run from the Mad Movies magazine - "The proper photo credits should be to Neil Jacobs (the photographer) and Storm King Productions/Largo Entertainment hold the copyrights."

News as of Feb 13th The Word On Vampires This excellent update found its way into my mailbox early this morning. Thank you for the news, you know who you are, "My source tells me this is the solid truth on Vampires' status: It has been sold completely foreign at this point- it will premiere in Paris in April at the Cinematheque Francaise as a tribute to John and will contain a full retrospective of his career. There is no US domestic release date, as no domestic deals have been struck yet- four companies are bidding with Largo for the domestic rights."
More Vampires Pictures Yep, thanks to Tom again for sending me these scans from the French Mad Movies magazine. Tom thinks (and I agree) that the extremely gory picture of the vampire slaying may be one of the scenes to fall foul of the censors cuts. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

News as of Feb 12th Very, Very Cool. Tom Alaerts has come up trumps and delivered this fantastic picture ..... (REMOVED see news on Feb 16th)

News as of Feb 10th No French Premiere This dissapointing news was submitted by Etienne "Vampire" didn't premiere at the Gerarmer film festival as it was announce. I don't know why. I'm looking for some informations. as soon as I get some, I'll tell you ! " So no concrete reasons why it wasn't shown and I am loathe to start any unfounded speculation.
The Reshoots? Many people have commented on the news of the reshoots for Vampires. The general consensus seems to be that they may be filming extra scenes for the trailer. This sounds fine, but the trailer was spotted in France a few weeks ago, so how does that fit into this?
Prince Of Darkness On DVD Many people have contacted me about this, all bursting to tell me the great news that POD is getting a widescreen DVD release. Brian says "just go to www.kencranes.com and check it out "
Alan Howarth Album Chris dropped in to give me this news"Here's an item J.C. fans may be interested in. Long time music collaborator, Alan Howarth, has just released a sound FX CD featuring some of the work he's contributed to films. It is unknown what the album contains at this point...just sixteen tracks...hopefully some Big Trouble or They Live stuff will be included. "
Vampires Special Effects Scoop This undead reporter managed to file this info on his way to the blood bank "... Greg Nicotero (his KNB Effects did VAMPIRES makeup effects) ..... has seen the finished film and thought it very good. "Every bit of blood, sweat and tears everybody gave to make this movie is on the screen. This is one of those movies where every element, story, effects, direction, actors, everything, comes together and is even better than you thought it was going to be when you were working on it." .... he and Carpenter are very good friends. .... confirmed that there are no CGI effects in the film because "John wanted to make a classic horror movie, not a here's the monster now watch him morph kind of thing" Nicotero seemed as lost as anyone as to why the film hasn't sold for U.S. distribution yet. He didn't seem to feel that BLADE was much of a factor. Nicotero also made it pretty clear in describing VAMPIRE's effects that it will be very gory. He said to prepare for the aftermath of one fight between humans and vampires that they walked around the set with supersoaker guns loaded with stage blood and covered everything and everybody, including some 19 victims scattered about the room."

News as of Feb 6th Wierd Vampires Goings On The ever vigilant Tom Alaerts has brought to my attention the following startling news on Harry's Aint It Cool News website - just read this "Here's the scoop (?) from Bone Thug...I am from Santa Fe, NM. And well I was recently walking around the plaza, when I saw a film crew and tape blocking off about three blocks. I went to go check it out and it turns out that they were filming a John Carpenter film called something like VAMPIRES and it seemed like it is gonna be a cool as Hell movie, but I didn't see much just about maybe 45 minutes of filming where it seems like they hadn't gotten nothing done, but it was also a cool little set that they had set up in the middle of the plaza. It seemed like it consisted of the cathedral that is in Santa Fe, and was being used as the main set, and they had lots of barrels of blood around so it seems like it's gonna be a bloody as hell movie, but I'll keep you posted on what's going on. They said that they were gonna be filming here in Santa Fe for the next three weeks, so I'll keep you >posted". That contradicts all our reports so far that Vampires has finished shooting and was even premiered in a recent festival in France. Thanks to Tom for pointing it out to us. My take on this? Unless these are 'reshoots' I would say that this is either old or incorrect news. Loads of sources (publicists, journalists, crew members, etc.) informed me of the shoot ending last August and I still stand by that.

News as of Feb 5th Vampires Snippets The UK mag Neon has an article on Vampires that mentions a few interesting points. The most intrigiuing is that no CGI FX will be used (contradicting some older stories), the fx will all be good old latex and fake blood. The rest of the article is pretty much stuff we know (i.e. Valick was created in the 14th century by the church, he 'bites' Sheryl Lee and a psyhcic link is created between the two, etc.) The article also confirms that it is an extremely violent film. JC has mentioned that a lot of scenes have been cut but will be available in the laserdisc version. Anyway, I'm off out to buy my copy now.
Vampires - Keep Your Eyes Peeled According to The Carpenticized Side Of The Web the US should be seeing clips and maybe even a trailer for Vampires soon.
French Premiere Did it premiere in that French film festival? I havn't had any news reports on it yet but you can be sure that I will post them here as soon as I have, the usual informants are working hard to try and get the scoop.

News as of Feb 3rd A Sentinel Update News destroyed, system crash