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 24th August New Vampires Trailer The official Sony Vampires site has the new trailer up, both as a mov and an avi. Thanks to Jarrette Moats for that info. If you can't get the trailer to load as a plug-in then surfing to http://www.spe.sony.com/movies/vampires/assets/ will give you a directory listing from where you can pick an avi or move version to download and then play. My thoughts on the trailer? I love it, Sony are definitely pumping up the kickass angle and I have no problems with that. I also think this trailer gives a much better plot synopsis than the previous one. Some really cool scenes, esp. the fantastic hints at Jack Crow's legendary badassness. I cannot wait to see this character roar across the screen in full buttkicking mode. Can you tell I am excited? That is why I love this trailer. It's got me on the edge of my seat praying for Vampires to come out soon. Does anyone know a UK release date? The downside? That goth music add-on is a bit naff, not helped by the fact that Marilyn Manson are one of the worst bands in the world, sort of a goth Spinal Tap. I don't like that association with this movie, but I think it at least shows that Sony are serious about pushing this film. All those gripes about the soundtrack forget one thing, Sony must have forked out big time for the rights to those songs which shows how much effort they must be putting into the promotion. The buzz is good and the master is back. I love the way the trailer makes it seem like we havn't really seen Vampires yet, all the others are just pale imitations, until we see John Carpenter's Vampires. Not just his film, but also his Vampires.
JCs Next Project? This really enticing bit of info recently surfaced in my mailbox "just heard a rumor that a new "interesting" script was recently presented to JC and Debra Hill..... had something to do with Demons and Southern California... " Thanks go out to Twoslats for that. Ok, it might not lead to anything solid but it is a tasty enough morsel to think about.
More JC Video Troubles Twoslats also has this warning "Just to let you know-- "Escape" is not the only JC film that was released with sound glitches. I was at Suncoast or Tower or some such place, and they had the "Haloween" Special Edtion on Video, and there was a sign above the rack stating that there may be a serious sound flaw in the first 20,000 copies released--check the serial #. If there is a problem, the studio would replace it for free. " It seems wierd that someobdy like JC, who is so fanatical about movie quality, would have this much bad luck. Of course, JC has nothing at all to do with these video releases, but it is not good stuff.
The Thing Special Ed Kim August, who runs the excellent Pharr Out! magazine, keeps us up to date with this long running release saga. " the THING special edtion is set for LATE September, I don't have an exact date but that's what I've heard from several sources including the place where I buy my lasers from."
Russell Muscle It's like a number 21 bus, you wait for ages for one and two come along at once. This time it is Kirk Russell websites, surely an actor deserving of moree web attention. Anyway, here are links to two new KR sites.

Confirmation of JC at Widescreen Film Festival in Long Beach "Hello, I picked up the info today at the college where the festival is held in Long Beach. JC will be speaking at 7:30 PM on Friday, October 23. At 8:00PM there will be a screening of "Vampires." Then, on Saturday, October 31st, there will be a screening of "Halloween" at 8:00 PM. JC will not be in attendance on that day. They also have prints of "Alien" and "Enter the Dragon", so this festival looks to be a good one. " - Jennifer Marley.
New Vampires Review This one is from the Jam magazine which has done seem decent JC coverage in the past "I just ran across your web page and thought you might want a link of the movie review for it. http://www.canoe.ca/JamMoviesReviewsV/vampires_powell.html "

News as of 18th August Re-Released EFNY Video This is a bit of info to share one person's experience with the new EFNY tape that has been released "... wanted to let everyone know to be careful if they buy the reissued EFNY out on Polygram now. I've returned my initial copy due to dialog dropouts and a very grainy (really bad) print. The replacement copy still has these problems...so if you can somehow find an older version, get one. "
The Thing Special Ed LD Yep, thins keep moving very slowly on this project - "I just happened to check this site: http://www.oz.net/blam/Universal/42654.htm , to see if any progress had been made on the highly anticipated laserdisc of JC's The Thing, and found an estimated street date of Sept. 8!! I'm wondering how loosely they're using the word "estimated", though... does this mean it could as easily be October or November? Mike "
A New Vampires Review I had to put this up cos it made me smile, and its nice to see a balanced review with carefully proposed criticisms "I have seen the movie and sadly for A Carpenter film it SUCKS. I have also seen Blade, Knock Off, and Rush Hour. Which are not bad. "
Jaxstor's Vampires Review I know I said I was going to hold back on Vampires reviews, but a lot of people who have contributed to this page over the years are sending in thier reviews and I think it is only fair to share them, see what the JC fans think of the film "....in a nut shell this is his best work in a long, long time....I think the best since halloween...for the following reasons 1. Great atmosphere...the cinematography and music go great hand to give great atmosphere 2. the action. This is action that is story driven rather then just set pieces. 3 the narrative.....it tells a story 4 the energy....even though I love Jc's films...something has been missing since halloween....when I swa vampires i what it was..energy!! This films graps you and does not let go...this is the John Carpenter who gave us assault and halloween.
Will American critics trash Vampires? Who can tell....critics from Germany to France have been very kind to this film with good reason... it it is very good film making...Will it be a hit.....only if sony markets it right....I do believe Carpenter has a cult classic on his hands though.....my audience loved it.. I envy you the first time you see it "
JC at Widescreen Festivals This was sent in by Mirth " I went to the San Diego Comicon Saturday (but Friday they had an unannounced "Vampires" screening! I missed it! AAAARRRGGGGHHH!) to see John Carpenter speak. It was interesting more in terms of finally getting to see him in person than in what he said -- mostly stuff we've heard before (he's going on vacation, might not direct again but probably will; "Vampires" will be released in his cut, as it's not up to the ditributor to make changes even if they wanted to; he loves all of his films and doesn't really have a favorite; the liklihood of another "Escape" movie is about zero). I'm sure someone else was there who can send in a better description.
Perhaps most interesting, however, was a casual mention by one of the audience members that she looked forward to seeing him at the Widescreen Festival. There are several Widescreen Festivals around the world, but the one she was referring to (I later found out) is in, I believe, Long Beach (California). John Carpenter will be hosting an exclusive pre-release screening of "Vampires" on either October 28th or 29th (price: $7) there, with Robert Wise also showing up to talk about and screen his film "The Haunting". A couple of days later (on the 31st) they'll be screening (amongst other things) the original "Halloween" (though no J.C. intro this time around). "
Vampires Trailer Not On All Copies of H20 Don M drops this info in "Just to follow up on the comment that a Vampires trailer preceeded H20 doesn't seem to be accurate. I saw H20 Friday and there was no Vampires trailer anywhere. Maybe it depends on the theatre since I've heard that it's the employees that usually piece together the trailers prior to the movie showing. Anyway, H20 was o.k. A 2-1/2 star movie. Steve Minor did a decent job in trying to write the wrong that was Halloween 4-5-and the absolutely pitiful 6. However, the movie of course wasn't the same without Carpenter. When has it ever been. There's a Vampires write up in the new Fangoria and the reviews seem to be extremely positive."
Official Vampires Info This was posted at aint-it-cool-news "

I thought I might be able to help answer a few of the questions about John Carpenter's Vampires.

1. There is only one version of the movie--John's final cut. This is the same version seen at any distributor's screenings, festival screenings, and the release in France. It received its R rating from the MPAA before it was delivered to Largo in December.

2. The music for the film is all composed and performed by John Carpenter with the exception of one song used in the motel party scene, "Teaser" by a blues band called Stone. On some tracks a live orchestra was used in addition to John's playing, and on some tracks we used live percussion by Bucket Baker. A band called the Texas Toad Lickers performed a few of the tracks. The members of the Toad Lickers are John Carpenter, Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunne, Jeff Baxter, Rick Shlosser, Joe Robb and Bruce Robb.

3. The trailer uses a cue from the soundtrack called "Stake and Burn" for the firest half, and a Marilyn Manson remix called "All the Ugly People" for the second-half montage. While it probably wouldn't work in the film itself, it seemed kind of cool in the context of building momentum and intensity in the montage. ( An earlier trailer was commissioned by Largo Entertainment, and with any luck will never see the light of day. It had techno-"toy" music, and could gag a maggot. It was never approved by us, and to my knowledge isn't being used by any of the distributors.)

4. The people at Columbia have been enthusiastic and supportive. There has never been any talk of changing the music on the film.

5. The soundtrack album will be released by Milan Records, distributed by BMG internationally. It will only include tracks from the movie and will not be an "inspired by" production.

Thanks for the great review, and thanks for caring about the integrity of the work. We appreciate it.

Best regards,

Insider person at Carpenter's side... " That pretty much clears up all the Vampires worries, roll on the general release!
More JC Stuff at AICN This was posted on the aint-it-cool site a while back "JOHN CARPENTER'S VAMPIRES PANEL: John Carpenter was extremely cool. Two interesting bits from the Q&A with him. One - the music is not being changed for the domestic release. He doesn't know where that rumor started, but it's not true. Two - yes, he did tell some people on the set of Vampires that this would be his last film ever. However, he feels that way when he completes any of his films. He says that he takes a good vacation after each film, gets re-energized, then starts work on his next film. " Good to hear that last comment as JCs wish to not do another film had managed to become a pretty strong rumour.
Vampires News From Cinescape Online Some really interesting info of some preview footage"‘John Carpenter wowed crowds at the San Diego Comicon today with the trailer and footage from the forthcoming Vampires. The Insider will have some quotes from Carpenter at a later date, but it is worthwhile to point out that the trailer and footage was EXTREMELY well received. The trailer features Marilyn Manson’s The Beautiful People behind scene after scene of undead action. The whole primer is put together in a very effective way that conveys the unique angle that Carpenter takes on the typical vampire genre (why Carpenter had trouble selling this flick is beyond the Insider).

Among the Vampires footage screened for fans:

"Motel Attack" Valeck (Thomas Ian Griffith) enters a hotel room filled with people and begins tearing apart everyone in sight with a clawed hand! He eviscerates a man, rips another inside-out from shoulder to heart and opens a few jugglers for good measure. Another person arrives in the midst of this carnage and empties a machine gun into him with little effect. It was an over-the-top sequence that showed Carpenter at his best!

"What Is A Vampire" [missed the actual title, so we’ll call it this for now] James Woods explains, in graphic detail filled with plenty of profanity, exactly what vampires are to a priest. It’s an effective performance that Woods pulls off well. The priest asks what the vampires are looking for and Woods explains that they’re after a mystical black cross.

"Vampires In Sunlight" The scene opened with James Woods battling a vampire on some kind of conveyor belt. Woods is on top of a vampire blasting away at the creature’s face and upper-torso with no effect. He tries to repeatedly stab the creature with equally poor results. The second the conveyor takes both Woods and the vampire into the sunlight the vampire erupted into a pyrotechnic display which drew raves from all in attendance.

One other notable point from Carpenter’s panel appearance was the director’s visible annoyance at suggestions that someone else would have the authority to replace his original Vampires soundtrack (as has been rumored on the Internet). No need to worry, Carpenter fans, the original tunes will remain intact." Ooops, I hope I didn't help spread that rumour around too much. Also from Cinescape, more info on the new trailer "A second Vampires trailer was shown at San Diego that explained, in great detail, the meaning of the Black Cross that the Insider wrote about yesterday. Evidently, in this new primer, the Black Cross is shown as a relic of great power to the undead which lead vampire Valek is out to retrieve so that he can walk amongst the living in daylight with absolutely no effect." Ok, I guess the next question is when is this trailer gonna be available on the net?
Frames At This Site I have overhauled the frames presentation of this site, it should now make site navigation much easier. Click here to change to the frames version (if you are not already using it).

News as of 12th August JC Interviewed in Fantasia "I interviewed him last Friday, in Montreal, for CBC's Infoculture web site and although the page is in French, you can listen to the 25 minutes long conversation in english (but please forgive my baaad english!) Here is the address: http://radio-canada.ca/infoculture/speciale/fantasia/carpenter.html I hope you'll enjoy it. Sylvie, Radio-Canada CBC Montreal " This is a fantastic interview that has been thoughtfully provided in Real Audio format so we can actually listen to JCs comments.
German Vampires Dave Joerg gives us a review of Vampires and info on its German release "... I have recently posted you the information about Vampires being shown on the German "Fantatsy Filmfestival" in the multiplex movie theater "Kinopolis" in Sulzbach (close to Frankfurt/Main). I was there and saw the show on Sunday August 9th. They had a full house and the audience was just great. They really loved the movie and were cheering and applauding during and after the film. The show was a blast! The movie was suspensefull, cool and stylish and very cleverly edited. The editing style is very new for Carpenter but it worked really great. Vampires has a unique atmosphere that really brings out the best of Carpenter. I really feel that he will please a major audience with this highly chilling film. The Soundtrack is also remarkable and combines rock and synthesizer elements. James Woods as the vampire killer is a true Carpenter anti-hero. My god, what a movie!!! The organisation "ROSEBUD" that manages the German "Fantasy Filmfestival" in Sulzbach, Germany was so pleased with peoples responds that it actually offered another show of Vampires on August 12th. Bye the way, the choice for the original English Version was wise. The movie was shown in the Kinopolis complex on the biggest THX-Screen in DTS Sound. It was awesome! The people from "ROSEBUD" said that a German distributer will most probable bring Vampires into German movie theaters because they believe that quote:" There is an audience for John Carpenter movies". Speaking of a regular theatrical release: I hope that the German FSK (Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle), which is merely the German version of the MPAA, won´t cut the movie down. Vampires is surprisingly gory but it is meant to be so and it works fine. People went nuts about these scenes! Anyway, I will see the second show on August 12th as well. I hope you Carpenter Fans in the world will soon have the chance to see the movie too. DAVE JOERG, Wiesbaden (Germany) " - "one more thing. One guy on your site mentions the German distributor "ARTHOUSE" to be the one company to put out "Vampires" in Germany. ROSEBUD said: Yes they really want to release the movie on a big scale. They had questionaires on the Kinopolis premiere handed out, so that people could tell their opinion on the movie. "
John Nada On The Web "This is Nada, telling you to put on these damn sunglasses and get over to this page so that you and I can have a one-to-one conversation". Ok, J_Nada is my Yahoo Pager ID, a nifty little net app that I have recently started using. It basically allows people to chat in real-time, so if anyone is interested and knows how to use it give me a shout.
Vampires Trailer Attatched to H20 I am a bit slow with this news, Chris gives us the info "By the way, I saw the VAMPIRES trailer before H20. VERY COOL!! But the trailer must be different than previous versions, as it only has lame Rob Zombie rock music playing over it. I'm really getting worried.... The trailer ends on a hysterical note. James Woods and another character are in a darkened celler, staring at something O.S. in horror. The other character exclaims: "You never told me they could do that!!!" and Woods, shaking his head, his eyes wide, responds: "I DIDN'T KNOW they could do that!!!" The new Fango also calls VAMPIRES J.C.'s best film since THE THING...."

News as of 11th August Vampires in Montreal The lucky b***ards have seen the film and are passing on their comments to me. Responses so far verge from positive to ecstatic. JC himself was there, commenting on the film (he is taking a loooong rest, so no projects for a while). It seems this will be the actual US version, so the good news is that it has not been butchered by the MPAA and JCs soundtrack is still on the film. It has not been saturated with rock music so we can all relax and not have to put up with Whiney Corgan spoiling the movie. Here are the reviews -

"Just wanted to drop a note and give you some info on last night's Vampires premiere here in Montreal. For me the month long Fant-Asia film festival ended with bang and a bite come to think of it. Vampires Rocks! James Woods as Jack Crow is fantastic and hilarious. It's not your usual horror fare there are more action elements to the movie than horror but Mr. Carpenter did not spare the hemoglobin. At times I was surprised he got away with some of the gore scenes considering the anal retentive MPAA censor board. Mr. Carpenter (who was in attendance) said he made a few minor cuts but what we saw last night was the release print going into theatres October 30th in North America. Mr. Carpenter presented the film and after the screening held a small question/answer period. Here's a few that I recall. One person asked about budget and shooting length. Apparently it was 54 day shoot in New Mexico with 5 month post production, the film's budget was 17 million U.S which is not very big by Hollywood standards. The film looks more expensive that's for sure. Someone asked if the author of Vampires John Steakly had much input in the movie. Mr Carpenter replied "none", he and the writer made all the changes. He did say he met the author once on the set and he was drunk at the time. So when those titles appear "John Carpenter's Vampires" you can be assured its his vision of the film and no one else's. Then someone asked what's next for him? He said he was going to take it easy. He mentioned he'd been working straight since 1993 and now he's "just relaxing watching pornography, wrestling and basketball." This got a huge audience reaction. After the questions he was kind enough to stay and sign autographs for huge lineup of fans who had brought various Carpenter paraphenalia. All in all a great evening. For Carpenter fans this one's great and hopefully opens up the eyes of others who don't know what the fans already know, John Carpenter is a great filmmaker. Stefan. "

"... I am also writing to to say that I just saw VAMPIRES last night at the Fantasia film festival in Toronto.I'm pretty sure that every JC fan will be pleased because this is one of his best and most polished films. James Woods is great and intense as one meanest anti-heros in recent cinematic memory. He makes Snake Plisken seem pleasent and amiable by comparison! The film was unrated with a great organic western music score and no crap pop music inserted. I wouldn't worry too much about them putting much or any pop music in it because JC's score works so well with the film. Something else which you may find interestng; orignally they supposed to premiere The Dentist 2 before Vampires but they lost the print of the movie so they showed Vampires twice! Anyway keep up the great work and I hope to write you again soon. - George Stark"

"I saw Vampires. Yessiree folks, yours truly was at last nights unveiling of John Carpenter's Vampires to the North American filmgoing public at Fant-Asia 98 and the event was a blast. Look for a D-E-T-A-I-L-E-D review soon. But until then be rest assured that the master is back. Vampires is absolutely the best film you'll see this year for sure. Carpenter has not shown such style since They Live (his last great film). If you felt In the Mouth of Madness, Village of the Damned, Escape from L.A. and all of the rest of his nineties work was beneath his capability, like I do, you're going to fucking LOVE Vampires. And don't let none of this shit on the internet (hey!) make you believe otherwise. If you love JC films and nothing else, like I do, then do not miss the latest masterpiece from the master. That's all for now, your leader has spoken. - Mohammad Khan"

Get JCs Autograph".. Mr. Carpenter has agreed to a signing of the soon-to-be-released DVD & laserdisc special editions of THE THING. This is scheduled to take place in a two hour period on the Thursday in September after the release of the title. He will only be signing two items (which must be store purchases) per person and no mail order customers can request autographs (in store customers only). The store is DAVE'S VIDEO-THE LASER PLACE in Studio City, California. Exact date & time are forthcoming."
The Fog Re-Release"Hey, Al Selby from Minnesota here, just thought you'd like to know that I'm an assistant manager at Suncoast Motion Picture Co. & today (8-10-98) we got word that "The Fog" will be reissued on VHS August 25th. It will be released in both P&S AND WIDESCREEN!! Polygram is the company we have to thank. Later. "
John Nada On The Web "This is Nada, telling you to put on these damn sunglasses and get over to this page so that you and I can have a one-to-one conversation". Ok, J_Nada is my Yahoo Pager ID, a nifty little net app that I have recently started using. It basically allows people to chat in real-time, so if anyone is interested and knows how to use it give me a shout.

News as of 7th August The Vampires Soundtrack I really think I am going to have to try and get some insider info on this, as with most people, I am worrying about the possible over-saturation of the film with 'rock' music. I hope it'll be more like and EFLA deal, where most of the songs on the music soundtrack were not even noticed in the film. Anyway, here is Tempus Fugit to keep us up to date "I just went through the latest news at Dark Horizons and they reported the last bands to sign to the Vampires soundtrack: "The last few bands have signed. Blood Hound Gang, Fiona Apple (with Erica Chase), Eva Trout, and The Smashing Pumpkins again (SP allegedly agreed to do a song for this, the ISK and the "Cupid" soundtracks for a $1 million fee)" Fiona Apple? Smashing Pumpkins? WTF? Personally, If I see Vampires and hear either Corgan or Fiona singing instead of JC's score, I believe an executive ass-kicking will be in order at Sony."
H20 Comments From Chris As a long time contributor to this site Chris' views on H20 are of interest "I caught the NYC premiere of H20, and I'm sorry to say, it really sucked. It had a few nice moments, and Jamie Lee is terrific...but it's silly and dull. The shape is NEVER imposing and Steve Minor doesn't know how to use the 2:35 frame ratio at all. But, I met JLC, and she's the neatest person you'd ever wanna meet. Someone asked her if she had nightmares about Michael Myers. She replied, "Nightmares? I have two childern. FUCK MICHAEL MYERS!!!" "
Vampires on ET Here are some comments from various viewers "Hey Marc, Didn't get to see it, but I was told by my brother that there was some news on Vampires on Entertainment Tonight this evening (August 5, 1998). Will try and catch the West Coast broadcast and will get back to update you on what was said. Nice to see some advertising being done this early. Maybe Sony will learn from the poor advertising that plagued In The Mouth of Madness (After it was released) and Village of the Damned. Also, saw the trailer for Blade. Ehh, looked o.k. (previews can be better than the movie) and come on, it's Wesley Snipes. Don M. in the U.S. " - "Wednesday, Aug. 5th -- Entertainment Tonight ran a first look at the trailer for John Carpenter's VAMPIRES. Even they mentioned it coming out the day before Halloween, on October 30th. In my opinion, they should release it about two weeks BEFORE Halloween since most movies make their money on Saturday night. Saturday night falls on October 31st this year, and that's the night where most people go out and celebrate Halloween at parties, which means horror movies don't make as much on the actual Halloween date. This could prove disasterous for VAMPIRES since that should be their money date. But, they're the pros, so they must know something I don't. The trailer looked cool, but looked like they cut a lot of stuff out for Entertainment Tonight, so I can't wait to see it in the theater some time. Bruce "
JC At Dragoncon "Hey there, just a tidbit.....JC is also going to be appearing at Dragoncon '98 in Atlanta, September. I think the website is www.dragoncon.org. "

News as of 2nd August JC At Saturn Awards This is just an old snippet about JC appearing at the 1998 Saturn awards (sci-fi, horror and fantasy awards). "John Carpenter looked good" While that might seem like really skimpy news, those who have been hearing some rumours will appreciate that piece of info.
JC and James Woods at Comic-Con"I was just checking over the comic-con website at it appears that JC along with James Woods will be appearing at that convention in San Diego on Saturday, Aug. 15. to promote "Vampires." That's next weekend. I also noticed that a few people from "Blade" will be there to promote that film on the same day. I'm hearing strains of Dueling Banjos." Check out their website if you haven't already. http://www2.comic-con.org/comiccon/ - Jennifer Marley "
Full-On German Vampires"The film has been picked up by a german distributor - Arthaus, a new company that has quite a good reputation for good video releasese (Woody Allen, foreign films etc.). There is no definite release date yet. The press release says: "A film that uniquely combines elements of classic western with horror- and action-films." I hope thats of some interest to you. Best wishes, Tobias Kessler "
EFNY For Sale In US "Escape from New York is now for sale at Suncosts everywhere. I just got my copy of it today for only $14.95. It was reissued by polygram video. Thanks for your time, Jonathan W. Taptich "
JC MP3's "... I now co-own a new Halloween Page called "The Horror At Haddonfield" at http://www.citynet.net/personal/woogy and we decided to include MP3's from the soundtracks to the Halloween movies. MP3's are full length CD quality songs that only amount to a few megabytes in disk space, so you might want to inform your readers of this, in case they want to hear John Carpenters music from the soundtracks. We fully encourage them to buy the CD's also, so everyone's happy :) Regards, Owen Edwards "

News as of 27th July Halloween, H20 Preview Ok, I won't be posting tons of previews and reviews of this tangentially linked JC movie, but this is the first one I got. Because I am interested (and so are most visitors to this page) I will put this one up "... Monday night I got to see the final installment in the Halloween series which we screened Tue morning. I'm not going to give anything away, but this is my small review of the film and to let fans know what to expect.

Halloween:H2O, the final installment which picks-ups 20 years after the original (and the sequel which was set on the same night) is a treat. As we all now installments 3,4,5,&6 do not exist. Some fans will be disapointed that it does not live up to the original, and that's alright. The film stands on it's own. Believe or not you don't really need to see the first two to get into this one. From the opening, the audience is treated to a Halloween history lesson. Which is cool, that brings in more fans who have not seen the original (yes, there is a problem if you have not, but there are people out there who have not), and will go back and experience the first.

The film is well paced and scary. Michael has never been more terrifying. There are a few scenes and dialogue that are from the original that make an updated version into this one. EX: The original, has Laurie in school seeing Michael outside only to be interupted by her teacher where she most answer a question. This happens again, but Laurie is the teacher this time around and calls upon a student who sees Michael outside the window. Pretty Cool. Also, when Laurie and Michael meet for the first time, after she saves her son & his girlfriend, is a brilliant moment. As for the final showdown, fans will be cheering in their seats. There's even a touching moment between brother and sister.

Steve Minor of Friday the 13th fame does a well job placing the scares in the right places. He also gives the film a little Carpenterish feel in some places. Paying homage. As for the score, Carpenter's theme still rocks. " I think I shall have to go and see this one, if only to smile at the tons of nods to the original.
Way Cool Night on TV This sounds great, I wish I could get a chance to see it "You've got a great JC site here. Very informative. Anyways, on the August 8 edition of Monstervision on the TNT cable network, Roddy Piper will be co-hosting a showing of THEY LIVE. Just thought other Carpenter fans might be interested. Bryan Hurley "
German Vampires This should hopefully please a few people who seem to be left out of the current release plans "... I am eagerly awaiting the official release of the the movie "Vampires". I have learned that there will be a preview of this movie very soon on a German Film festival. It is the "Fantasy Film Festival" in Sulzbach near Frankfurt/Main, Germany. The movie will show in the multiplex-Cinema "KINOPOLIS". I checked their website and it says that "Vampires" will show on their biggest screen with Digital Sound in a THX equipped theater. "Vampires" will show on August 9th 10.30 PM CET in the original English version (thankgod!), not dubbed in German. I will definitely return earlier from my vacation trip to Amsterdam to catch this show.I can4t wait! " Sounds good to me, see it in a great cinema and thankfully it is not dubbed.
Rock From the Crypt Quite a few people e-mailed me about this, Tempus Fugit got his in first ".. the Dark Horizons website they listed some of the bands who are going to be on the Vampires soundtrack. He said Sony announced it but I have to go to work and don't have enough time to personally check out the Sony website... "Sony has announced most of the artists on the soundtracks for their two big Fall releases. Firstly, on the album for the John Carpenter film "Vampires", the list includes (there's still five groups yet to be included): Rasputina with Maralyn Manson, Sissys In Black Heels, Helmet, Gravity Kills, Roni Size, Big Fatty Boombatty Blunt, Sadaham's Son, Uncle Dicky, The Atomic Waste Baskets, Eve 6, Bigger than Diggler, L7, Asteroid Slutz, Meat Fiddle with John Carpenter, and Horsehead." Marilyn Manson, eh? I thought that one is interesting... I'm interested in finding out who Meat Fiddle is as well... Great sight, Marc and keep up the good work. " Sounds interesting, but to put some peoples fears to rest. The official word is still that JCs Vampires score will also be released, sort of like the dual EFLA soundtracks that were released.
Sony Vampires Just to keep people up to date with the 'official' info, this is a link to Sony's Vampires site.

News as of 20th July Official Vampires US Release Date - "It's official...According to the Sony Pictures web site, Vampires will be in theatres October 30, 1998...Guess that means we'll have to wait another month and a half...Oh, well...MARK STEENSLAND "
US Chance to see El Diablo" Critic's Choice Video is now offering VHS copies of "El Diablo," the HBO western written by John Carpenter and starring Anthony Edwards and Louis Gossett, Jr., for $9.99 in their recent catalogue (Summer 1998). You can order it with a major credit card by calling toll-free 1-800-367-7765, or by visiting their website (www.ccvideo.com). The catalogue number is JVHBO-000345. Carpenter fans who haven't seen "El Diablo" are in for a treat! I highly recommend adding it to your collection! Sincerely, Kenneth J. Souza "
Snipes Takes a Pop at Vampires" In the recent Sci-Fi Teen Magazine there is a coverage report about Blade. And at the very end of the interview they ask him about going up against Vampires. Here's the quote, "That movie has no teeth at all, Blade is the biggie." Robbie RIdenour " Well, I guess they have to talk it up, and advance word does seem to be positive for Blade. However, Snipes should be careful, anyone remember Money Train and Drop Zone?
Vampires Info Patrick Kerr at The Films Of JC Site has managed to get in touch with the 'top source' for some info on Vampires, posted on his news page.
JC's Next Project As the above link points out, JC has a few things 'in development' but nothing confirmed yet. I have had very little feedback about the JC/Wrestlter news and I am inclined to think it is all a rumour. If filming had already started then someone would know something. Nope, I think it is just a rumour.
JC and H20 " Just wanted you to know...I went to the H20 press junket this past weekend. A lot of questions from reporters on Carpenter/Hill went around. Jamie Lee told me herself that Carpenter has NOT seen the film yet. I overheard some Dimension publicity people saying to make sure to invite Carpenter/Hill to the premiere of H20." Nice to see Dimension willing to put the credit where it is due, at JC and Debra Hill, not just Akkad.

News as of 14th July Hi, a bit of a break between news again because of work commitments and the simple fact that things are really quiet in the rumour-mongering business. Thanks to everyone for the e-mails of support about the new tie-ins with a certain video store.
JC's Next Project This scant piece of info has me hungering for more - "Hi! I found this out from a report on the WWF hotline, (that's the World wrestling federation, if you don't follow wrestling) and it said this: "~ Terry Funk will be in an upcoming John Carpenter movie, and filming will begin later this month." I got it here WWF Hotline Report which was reported here "The Innovator's" WICN News Board. Terry Funk is one of the oldest Wrestlers still going, but is also the most hardcore wrestler of all time. JC's last movie with a wrestle was by far his best (They Live) so this could alos be very cool. Take it for what it's worth. -Alan Cafferkey " Wow, anyone got a follow up on that one? In case you are interested, you can go to Terry Funk's IMDB listing.
More Projects and That French Book This is from Chris, who has managed to track down that elusive French book about JC "A few tid-bits: I got that French J.C. book today and it's quite excellent. Lots of rare (some I've never seen) pics. I just wish I could read the darn thing!

In anycase, there's a section in the back dedicated to postponed productions and the like (sound familiar?). Here's some to add to your collection:

ARMED & DANGEROUS. Yes, the John Candy/Dan Ackroyd movie! It was apparently offered to J.C.

STAR TREK: Proposed to J.C. in 1976.

DRACULA: Can't decipher much on this one...only that Coppola's name is mentioned.

TOP GUN: Believe it or not." Some really interesting stuff there, can you imagine a JC Top Gun? As for Star Trek, I think that could have been really cool, and it would have probably affected the whole franchise.
Dark Star on DVD About time, as I am sure many of you are thinking "Just culled this nugget from the Laserviews website. Seems like "Dark Star" will be forthcoming on DVD! Keep up the great work! Kenneth J. Souza

The Roan Group and Video Communications, Inc. in joint DVD venture

(7/1/98) "The Roan Group has entered into a joint venture with Video Communications, Inc...to release motion pictures on the new DVD format. The combined film catalogs of the two companies will result in one of the finest selections of classic films in all genres.... The new company, Magic Lantern Entertainment, will announce several DVD releases at the Video Software Dealers Association show in Las Vegas next week..... Look for these upcoming releases on DVD:

Brute Force
A Christmas Carol with Alastair Sim
Gargoyles
Gorgo
----> John Carpenter's Dark Star"
JC's Word on H20 This was dropped in by Chris "The new ish of CINEMAFANTASQUE has an interview with J.C. concerning the new Halloween. J.C. states that Jamie Lee contacted him and asked him to do the flick...but it came down to the following:

A. No more story to tell. B. Not enough $$$ to spend on the picture. C. J.C. not feeling he had to prove anything. D. J.C. stating that he's "getting too old" to continue to work as much as he does. He someone jokingly refers to himself turning the big-five-oh this year....saying that he's an official card-carrying member of the retirement association of America. Or something like that. "
Vampires In Montreal Yep, it is sheer sour grapes. Because I live nowhere near Montreal I have been slack in providing you with all the info you might need to go and see it. Sorry, but Mohammad Khan is going. Check out this section of his Carpenticized Side Of The Web for all the info you could possibly need on Vampires North American premiere.
JCs Soundtrack to The Sentinel This little bit of info was sent in bt Tom Alaerts, to brighten up the news pages "- In the french "Fnac" shop chain, they give the JC soundtrack CD of The sentinel if you buy the game. I believe it has 10 tracks. " Defintely one to track down, as the link to the Real Audio version of the file (on this page a few days/weeks ago) showed.

News as of 7th July I've Sold Out! Ok, think of this as you will. Either I am the lowest of the low for deciding to join the corporate man, or I am providing a service to sort out all those 'where can I get a copy of xxxxx?' messages. Basically I have hooked up links with reel.com, to provide pointers to where you can buy what looks to me pretty much like JCs whole back catalogue (minus a few little nuggets) in various formats. So over the next few weeks you might see links popping up on the movie pages - such things as:

Or maybe

So, that is the state of play. All messages calling me a corporate whore sell-out should be sent to brightms1@cf.ac.uk. If anyone has any thoughts on this let me know. One thing, this will not change the state of the JC page in any way. These are just links to an external site, not sweeteners to get me to try and push sales on people.

News as of 2nd July Late Update - Vampires to Preview in Toronto! I don't know how many of you have the means to get to this, but it sounds like the first chance the public of the North America will have to see this film, as reported at www.aint-it-cool-news.com "Toronto to get John Carpenter's VAMPIRES first in North America!!! Just so you know it, you can see VAMPIRES early if you attend this screening in Toronto. Trust me... you won't regret it. Harry, I know how much you've been looking forward to "John Carpenter's Vampires!", so I figured you'd flip over this tip. Toronto is having its annual "Fantasy/Action Film Festival", starting at the end of July. Over half of the movies will be Hong Kong chop suey movies. BUT... The organizers announced yesterday that the festival will close, on August 9th, with the North American premiere of "Vampires!". Dunno if anyone associated with the film will be there, but I sure as hell will be!! Call me St. Germain. "
The Full Info on The Thing, Special Edition, LD and DVD The first bit of info comes from Victor Leon "Thank you so much for posting my Halloween 2 and 3 DVD news. Now it seems that the release date has now been delayed to Sept. 29th of this year. This is all according to the release list of Digitaleyes.net.... on another note, Universal's Signature Collection will indeed release a Laserdisc version of JC's The Thing. They recently updated their The Thing page at their laserdisc site on June 24th. The estimated street release of the LD will also be in Sept. A retail price has yet to be determined. So this means that everyone will have a choice of which format they would like to own. I personally would get the DVD if it contains all of the same material as the Laserdisc. Some of which, according to the update, will include-" The Thing-Terror takes shape." It is an 80 minute original documentary of the making of The Thing. It includes interviews with JC, Russell, Rob Bottin and Albert Whitlock who did the great mattes for the film. Other extras on the LD will be-Trailers, behind the scene footage, behind the scenes location footage, work in progress visual FX footage, alternate scenes, deleted scenes, production stills, stop motion animation footage not used in the film. And of course the much bally-hooed commentary by JC and Russell. Now this is important, all of this stuff will make it to the LD but we all hope that it will make it to the DVD as well." Then Sherrif Bracket dropped in with this "Hey...the Sheriff here again. Got the low-down on the confirmed supplements for the upcoming The Thing Special Edition:

- Audio commentary by John Carpenter and star Kurt Russell - An 80-minute original documentary featuring interviews with John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, special effects make-up designer Rob Bottin, legendary matte artist Albert Whitlock, plus other members of the cast & crew - Never-before-seen stop-motion footage and behind-the-scenes location footage, and outtakes - Production photos, storyboards, conceptual art - Annotated production archive - Theatrical trailer

Sounds pretty damn swell, eh? Also, a laserdisc version has also been announced, with the same street date as the DVD...September 8, 1998. The DVD is $34.95, the laserdisc $39.98 (with the main feature and documentary in CLV format, and the photos and archive on a seperate CAV side). The DVD will have the isolated score accessible from the menu screen by using the remote's chapter search controls.

Also, Paramount will be releasing Escape From LA on DVD in widescreen in late fall/early winter, and on DIVX (P&S only) sometime late summer/early fall. " So, it seems like the DVD and the LD will be full of extras. My choice? I'm a poor student, stuck with VHS, so I'll just have to wait a while longer.

News as of 26th June New JC Composition On-Line Mark dropped this into the JC mailing list "I have a Real Media File of the music from SENTINEL on my site. Just click on the picture of J.C. at the Keyboard and the file will play. It takes about 4 minutes to start (at 28.8). http://www.ccnet.com/~p166/ I have been experiencing some problems with my server so if you can not connect, that is the problem. :( Sorry. "
Sherrif Bracket DVD News To keep us up to date, our old friend from Halloween night has dropped in " Sheriff Brackett here again! As you probably already know, The Thing Special Edition has been announced for DVD only (so far), with a street date of September 8th, 1998. 'Bout time! As you also know, a commentary track was recorded by John Carpenter and Kurt Russell. I'm gathering info now on if it will be included in the package (it should). Another nice bonus is that the score will be isolated and accessible from the DVD's menu screen. The disc will also be dual-layer format, meaning the DVD format's extra long-playing time is being utilized for optimum picture and sound quality. Alas, it the transfer is widescreen 2.35:1 but not 16x9 formatted, but I guess after this long wait we can't be too picky.

Be on the lookout for Starman coming your way on DVD as well, in both widescreen and P&S versions, on August 11th, 1998 from Columbia. Unfortunately, they have decided to not release Christine this year. Maybe next year...

BTW, check out my new web site...it is at www.dvdfile.com

It contains a DVD Request Infoline, which provides contact information to studios for easy requesting of titles you'd like to see on DVD. Two titles included are Escape From New York and a Criterion Edition of Halloween. Check it out!"
Halloween DVD News This is from Victor De Leon "I did'nt know if you already knew or not but I thought I'd give it a shot. Since you and your contributors are always right on top of things. I saw a release date for the Halloween 2 and 3 DVD's today over at digitaleyes.net. A DVD site that I visit occasionally visit. They are slated for a sept.9th release date. They do not, as far as I noticed, contain any extras except that they are in widescreen. That's enough for me! Since TL and POD were released the same way. These 2 discs though are priced much more inexpensively. Around 20 dollars U.S. Some places even cheaper. "

News as of 23rd June The Thing Special Edition First off, before I get to some awesome news, Twoslats would like to say "Just letting you and Matt G know--the whole point of my bringing up the "Thing Signature" ad was to demonstrate that the ads have been around for ages. I wasn't mentioning it as in "Oh, wow, it's on it's way..." I was mentioning it as in "Oh, hell, yet another ad for this disc that will never ever arrive." Context is so important to sarcasm... " But now onto the great news, first from te (the curator of The John Carpenter Shrine) " There was just a posting on the laserdisc newsgroup tonight from Blaine, the webmaster for the Universal LD site. He made an 'unofficial' announcement that the THE THING signature collection DVD would be announced tomorrow (6/23) on the Laserviews website (http://www.laserviews.com/). There was no laserdisc announcement mentioned. This should be one fantastic disc. " that is added to by Mark Steensland "The Thing will be released by Universal on September 8 in a special edition format. Will retail for $34.98 U.S. and will contain trailers, production stills, a making of featurette and, of course, will be in widescreen format. No word on whether the disc will have the long- promised Russell/Carpenter alternate audio track. More info as I receive it. " Fantastic news. As we expected, the LD release may be dropped for a DVD release. But, JC and Kurt have done their audio tracks so they must be included, it is common sense. Let's keep our eyes peeled to see the developments on this one.
Tom Alaerts Vampires Review As promised, here is Tom's full review of the flick "Vampires (1998, USA, Largo Entertainment, 103 min.) director/composer: John Carpenter script: John Carpenter, Don Jacobi, Dan Mazur actors: James Woods, Daniel Baldwin, Sheryl Lee, Thomas Ian Griffith, Mamilian Schell rating: >= 12 years (in France) some people should be warned that the movie contains: extreme violence, some nudity, foul language, a delightful absence of Hollywood-type morals or political correctness.

At the moment, John Carpenter's latest movie can only be seen in France, where it did good business (esp. considering it's a horror movie). USA release is planned for the autumn. For interested tourists: keep in mind that the French release is dubbed in French. I don't know if the movie is also screened with subtitles. Luckily, my French was good enough so I only didn't fully get some subtleties of Jack's Crow swearing... I also believe that the movie is at the end of its career in France.

For those who haven't heard about it: here follows a very short and relatively spoiler-free synopsis of the intro: Jack Crow (James Woods) and his team are full-time, Vatican-endorsed vampire hunters. Team Crow employs drastic measures, to say the least. They manage to seriously anger the "original vampire" Valek (an impressive Griffith) and now the hunters become the hunted...

John Carpenter is back. Remember those delicious shivers you experienced during his best movies? Remember the impeccable wide-screen compositions, the trademarked thumping soundtrack? The much-copied "spring-loaded-cat" shocks? The non-conformist anti-heroes with the snarling one-liners? This movie delivers it all in spades. Carpenter needed a hit movie. It was hoped that his previous effort, Escape from LA, would bring him back to the commercial top, but it wasn't the expected hit. Perhaps this was only to be expected, how could a public that adored the extremely populist "Independence Day" appreciate such a cynical take on America? Before EFLA, there was "Memoirs of an invisible man" (which I believe is underrated), "In the mouth of madness" (which had a good story, but was not really scary) and the remake of "Village of the damned" (somewhat impersonal, but like most of JC's movies, it seems to get better with each passing year). I believe that, with the possible exception of Memoirs, all these movies made some money world-wide [Memoirs also made money - MB ], but we have to go back to "They Live" (1998) for Carpenter's last real commercial success. Commercial success is not necessarily a synonym for artistic success (just reconsider Independence yawn), but a hit now and then typically means easier funding for new projects. This movie might just be it.

You can expect Carpenter doing things differently. A vampire-movie is a classic, strongly coded style, but Carpenter injects it with new blood, by filming it as a contemporary western. Many Carpenter movies have some Western-type situations or characters, but it was never this obvious. You can notice it in the group of Team Crow (a wild bunch), the dusty southern landscapes, the music... I believe it is an appealing, refreshing mix (as far as I know, only Near Dark has more or less the same atmosphere) and I think the movie will benefit from strong word-of-mouth. Don't expect a soft horror movie. Vampires is a raw and brutal movie. The vampires themselves act more like leopards (very quick, beastly, deadly) than like classic vampires.

Carpenter's style has evolved. I always admired the relatively calm and pure but elaborate filming style of his earlier work. Alas, it seems that this very classic filming style is out of fashion. The style of Vampires is still visibly Carpenter (this is one of the very few directors who have a recognisable style) but on the whole it's "faster" than before. The global effect is more like the style of Desperado. More camera's are used and editing is generally faster than before (certainly during action scenes), but we're not talking 3-cuts-per-second Michael Bay style here. Well, the Reborn Carpenter Style works. It is also interesting to note that an extreme carnage in a motel is edited with fades. You would expect fast cuts (fades seem like "nicer" transitions) but it works. In this case I thought it gives a more mythical aura to the action.

Considering actors: James Woods truly shines. You really believe he's vampire hunter Jack Crow. He is not a likeable man, but then Snake Plissken or the killer from Assault (forgot the name) weren't nice either. These are truly "Carpenterian" heroes (lone, cynical, anarchist), and the director has said he sees them as idealised projections of himself. If that's true, better not mess around with this guy... It must also be said that Crow's attitude to women is not politically correct. Jack Crow won't have an Erica Jong novel in his bookcase... Daniel Baldwin is not special at all. Competent, nothing more. This could have been a nice role for Kurt Russel. It is a pity we don't see Sheryl Lee more often on the screen: she's a good actress (though her dialogue is minimal here) and of course, rather pleasing on the eye. But the big surprise of the movie is Thomas Ian Griffith. I didn't know him, but it seems he played in some B-grade action movies. His Valek is a truly magnificent, powerful and scary vampire. He has the charisma of Christopher Lee. The fact that he is really tall, makes him seem even more supernatural and invincible. What a change compared to Coppola's wimp Dracula!

Some other nice touches: the music has evolved, too: there are some typical Carpenter rhythms but they are held together with guitar sounds which reminded me of Ry Cooder (okay, not as good as Cooder). All in all, it seemed like one of JC's better soundtracks, and I am curious if it will also work as stand-alone music. And considering the story: the way the church is tied-in to the vampire myth is refreshing and there's some nice use of telepathy (also unexpected in a vampire movie). The inventive way the vampires are killed produces some extreme images. Perhaps it works so well because it isn't played for laughs (unlike From Dusk Till Dawn, for example). You'll see... Perhaps you are thinking: "Okay, but what about cardboard characters? Or an underdeveloped script?" Well, since you insist, I have to explain it... This movie deals with professionals. They don't start some freudian whining when something bad happens. They act. The characters are defined by their actions, less by their dialogue. Therefore, the bit of love-interest isn't drenched in Titanic-like romanticism. Vampires just wants to be creepy. The rest is superficial. By concentrating fully on the essential elements of what makes a good horror film, it succeeds. You can actually apply this reasoning on most of Carpenter's movies.

Is everything in the movie that excellent? Sadly, I have to make one remark: it really feels like the remaining budget suddenly evaporated while the ending was being filmed. It should have been a big, nail-biting finale. What we get to see is reasonably suspenseful in its build-up but like I said, it seems the moviemakers ran out of money. I don't want to give away too many spoilers, I think you will notice it yourself. Some running people, some shots are heard (not seen). It's all over rather quickly. I believe Carpenter wanted to save it with quick editing. Now, if Stanley Kubrick is allowed to film for 15 months and is recently even doing re-shoots for a month, perhaps it would be nice to flesh out the ending of Vampires somewhat. Otherwise, the movie is very enjoyable and there's a constant tension. The motel scene will be classic among horror fans. If I compare the movie to Prince of Darkness, Carpenter's last truly excellent horror movie, Vampires scores less on the edge-of-the-seat factor, perhaps because POD was much more claustrophobic. Or perhaps also because of the change in filming style. Whatever, Vampires is suspenseful and there's a lot of (gory) action. Highly recommended for genre lovers who are tired of standard horror-movies, or amateurs of wayward but skilled film-making in general.

Score: I think it is in Carpenter's top 5. You can convert this to your own units of appreciation.

Copyright Tom Alaerts, 1998 "

News as of 22nd June Vampires, Halloween and Blade Well, most of you will have seen rumours flying around the web of various shenanigans going on with release dates. A few people have e-mailed me with the news (thanks everyone) so I decided to attempt to get some official confirmation. This is what I got - "Columbia Pictures has been considering moving the US release of "Vampires" to October 30th, but no final decision has been made yet. H20 has changed its release to Aug. 5th. "Blade" has changed to August 21st, so God knows what's going to happen next. While we don't want the Halloween weekend as our opening, ultimately, the decision is Columbia's to make. They have an excellent track record in releasing, so maybe they have something special up their sleeve. In general, the Halloween weekend is a killer for horror movies, and Saturday is the holiday, so while the weekend grosses would probably be lower than otherwise, maybe the idea is to platform for a widening run. Regarding the re-release of the original "Halloween", we haven't heard anything other than the same rumours you've heard. John will be making an appearance with Robert Wise at the Wide Screen Film Festival in Los Angeles on October 30th to introduce a double bill that night of "The Haunting" and "Halloween". Perhaps that screening has given rise to the re-release rumours. " Special thanks to that source for keeping us all up to date. I wish I was going to be at that screening. JC, Robert Wise and the two scariest films I have ever seen. Both of those kept me up all night as a kid and I would love the chance to see them in that setting. If you are anywhere near there you have to go and give us a full report on what happened.
Tom Alaerts Has Seen Vampires Regular visitors to this page will recognise Tom's name as a diehard JC fan who has kept us up to date with developments, he has seen the movie, and his opinion is " This weekend I finally managed a trip to Lille. A very nice city, and vampires was still playing in 1 cinema. I must have seemed like a lunatic, going to a cinema while it was the first real summer-day of the year... Anyway: I will write a completely subjective review this evening and post it to you tomorrow. For now: I think it is JC's best one since They Live... " Fantastic news, we are all waiting for the full review.
Vampires Soundtrack As promised, here is the info from Franck " Here's the information you asked : Label of the CD : MILAN Number of tracks : 16 01 - Teaser 3:15 02 - Slavers 2:39 03 - New Mexico 2:22 04 - Headless Priest 2:51 05 - Motel Sex 4:30 06 - Night Attack 3:19 07 - Santiago 2:22 08 - Stake and Burn 3:43 09 - Valek's portrait 1:19 10 - Sunrise death 2:04 11 - Valek Attacks 3:34 12 - Vampire vision 1:47 13 - Farewell slaver 2:11 14 - Cruel highway 3:00 15 - Katarina bites 1:52 16 - Padre's wood 5:36 "
JC Interview in Shivers "Hi there.I just thought you'd like to know Shivers magazine will be running an interview with JC in the July issue (in UK stores 25 June). I'm about to update the Shivers Internet page so, within the next couple of days, you should be able to find some JC stuff on the site. Go to www.visimag.com for more information (but please give me a couple of days because I'm really busy creating links pages at the moment). We'll be giving you guys a link so if you could reciprocate we'd be grateful. Many thanks. Jonathan Wright Online Editor, Visual Imagination Ltd "
More Info On Zu You may remember that ZU: WARRIORS OF MAGIC MOUNTAIN was a movie recommended by JC. Tom Alaerts gives us more info on the film " I wanted to add this about Zu: warriors from the fire mountain. ... it was a cult hit on festivals where it was shown. And it is well-known that JC adored it. His "Big trouble" is said to be inspired by it. You have to know that the young Tsui Hark directed his first few movies in the states. Rarely seen exploitation stuff like "We are going to eat you". He returned to Hong-Kong and found it was very difficult to produce a movie which broke from the standard kung-fu mould. Still, he persevered his idea of a Chinese fantasy movie. Western SFX people were brought in. But because of production problems and hermetic Chinese folklore, the movie "Zu" is said to be very difficult to follow. Also, the SFX look dated by now. But (I believe) the movie had a lot of success in Asia and is in fact the precursor of the "new wave" of Hong-Kong films. Without it, a modern classic like "A Chinese Ghost Story" (highly recommended) would probably not have been made. TH later made some truly excellent other Hong-Kong movies and is rightly called "The Spielberg of Asia". Try to see "The Blade" or "Peking Opera Blues". As a note: it is still a problem in Hong-Kong to try a new kind of movie, John Woo first had to make some 20 kung-fu & comedy films before TH gave him the chance of making a gangster movie. As they say, the rest is history. I once read that JC saw a non-subtitled video of John Woo's "Hard Boiled" (a completely over-the-top action-movie that makes Die Hard look like The Little Mermaid) and absolutely adored it, though he didn't understand any dialogue. "
The Thing LD As I expected, the rumours about its imminent release are just that, rumours. Matt G drops this info in "I hate to burst the bubble of Twoslats, but that insert that advertised Universal's Signature Collection and especially The Thing has been put into Laserdisks as far back as September of 1996. To truly get a grasp on the situation, surfers can check out Universal's site at http://www.blamld.com/Universal/SignatureCollection.htm and you will notice that The Thing Laserdisk hasn't been updated in close to a year. "
Creature From The Black Lagoon When he dons those black sunglasses he cuts through the smoke and sees the real deal. John Nada is back to give us a little bit more info on JCs most eagerly anticipated non-project "RE: the comments on Carpenter's CREATURE remake, ... he (JC) did VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED as a favor to the studio, who promised to do CREATURE if he did VILLAGE. While the film was in production, the studio chief changed, they dumped VILLAGE as far as any decent release or promotion and dropped the CREATURE project. It's no wonder JC is gun shy in his dealings with the big studios. " And John Nada stayed long enough to give us his news on the release dates "I've heard the same rumors about a release date change for VAMPIRES, ... but nothing is confirmed. VIRUS is to be moved to 1st quarter '99 release, and I understand this is definite. " In case you are wondering, Virus is the new JLC horror/sci-fi flick. On a related note some very bad reviews of H20 have surfaced on the web (see here). Seems like all the positive press is now being balanced with some negative. Personally, I hope this film is a classic and episodes 3-6 get completely forgotten. We then have Halloween, Halloween 2 and H20, hopefully a decent horror trilogy.

News as of 16th June Halloween Re-Release Yep, we have official word on this fantastic news from the Halloween Movies website "Still lovin' your page as always ;) Indeed everything you stated in your latest update on HALLOWEEN is true. H20 will be released August 5th, with a re-release closer to October 31st. Moustapha Akkad himself told me that along with the re-release of H20 will be a re-release of the original HALLOWEEN. He sounded VERY excited and 100% sure that this will happen. We'll have more on the site about H1's re-issue as it becomes available. " I asked Brian if the re-release would be extended to other countries like the UK, he replied that he wasn't sure cos he only had a quick chat with Akkad. I hope this does happen, I would love to see it on the big screen on Halloween.
The Thing LD Yep, we have been waiting for this for an age (DVD has actually become the new big thing while we have been waiting!). No solid news, but this interesting snippet from Twoslats "A friend just purchased a LD with an advertisement inside for the "Thing" Signature--said "coming soon" or some such crap. What a tease. " As far as I know the principals (JC and Kurt Russel) have finished their work for it ages ago.
Vampires Moulah? Dustin asks a good question that I would also like an answer for "Hey, I check your page about twice a week for news about Vampires. That "official" page is not nearly as cool...Anyway, I was wondering if you know how much money Vampires brought in in France."
Movie Recommendations From JC This is really cool, I am going to try and track down these movies "... He is very polite & approachable, but likes to keep to himself. He claims VAMPIRES is really a western (with a wink) and has been wearing the crew jacket every time he's come in for almost a year now. The jacket has a neat "crucifix with angel wings" symbol embroidered on its back. He recommended two films ... in connection with BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA that fans should check out. One is ZU: WARRIORS OF MAGIC MOUNTAIN, and the other is SWORDS OF FAME (or FLAME, he couldn't remember). ZU is an out-of- control Tsui Hark fantasy-adventure. Interesting to see all the obvious influences. I have yet to find SWORDS OF F(L)AME, but I'm sure I and others can find it." Thanks very much to ... for that great piece of info.
Vampires Soundtrack Franck keeps us up to date with this news "Hello ! I am Franck from PARIS. I write you this e-mail just to tell you that I bought the Vampires' soundtrack 3 days ago. Yes, it is at last available in France and it is really great ! Do not hesitate to contact me if you want more information about it. " I should be getting the full info on it soon
Creature From The Black Lagoon This old project of JCs has not been re-opened, but I thought you might be interested in this little piece of info, supplied by Bill Myers from the JC mailing list " This reminded me, a couple years back I recall reading that Carpenter was very excited about re-making The Creature From The Black Lagoon. His idea as I remember it was sort of a Thing meets Prince of Darkness concept. It concerned the idea that the Creature was the missing link somehow, and so the groups that would be affected most by this revelation (the church, and scientists) attempt to hunt the creature down to keep anyone from finding out. Please, anyone with more info, I only have the sketchiest of details and I may be completely off target, so feel free to correct me. But that seemed like it would have fit nicely right into Carpenter's oeuvre. "

News as of 12th June Halloween 20 With the lack of JC news about at the moment I thought I might spend some time on the latest, but hopefully much improved, in the Halloween sequels. The first info comes from Mark Fridman "Check out the latest issue of Fangoria where it says the release date for Halloween H20 is in September--I think it said Sep. 21." Alas, I am sure this is wrong. The printed word just can't keep up with the latest developments. Joe Sherlock drops this in "I found this in the Yahoo entertainment news, I believe it is straight from Daily Variety: HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Dimension Films is employing scary tactics for its latest scary movie. The Miramax genre division has given its slasher thriller "Halloween: H2O" an Aug. 5 release date.... In "Halloween: H20," Jamie Lee Curtis reprises her role as Laurie Strode who once again takes on her knife-wielding nemesis, Michael Myers. Miramax co-chairman and Dimension founder Bob Weinstein claims that "Halloween: H20" scored even better than "Scream" in test screenings. Independent sources verified the findings." Then, Dark Horizons reports that "On a happier side of confirmed date shifts, due to the great buzz and test screening reactions for the horror flick "Halloween: H20", that film is being moved from its previous release date of September 25th WAY UP to August 5th. This would mean it would open against the much less publicised horror/paranoia flick "Disturbing Behavior" which is set to open on that date but now seems likely to move. Dimension is rumoured to be running H20 for two months before it pulls it from the theatres in early October and then re-releases it on October 30th for the second theatre run. Thanks to 'Andy', 'Dan the Man', 'Roenick27', 'Movieguy#13', 'George', 'Dakhath' & 'Mr. Black'." The re-release on Oct 30th also makes sense to me, how could you not have it in the cinema's on Halloween?
Vampires Release Date Dr Casey, of the well-respected Cabinet Of Horror, thinks that something may be moving -" I'm hearing a new U.S. release date of October 30th for Vampires. This makes sense to me, since there has been some major movement going on with "horror"-related films. Dimension just bumped up their release date on the new Halloween film to early August to compete with MGM's Disturbing Behavior. Another Jamie Lee Curtis thriller, Virus, is set to debut in mid-August. New Line has moved the release date of Blade, Vampires' real competition, up to August 21. Naturally, Vampires might suffer with this sort of competition on its previously-planned September date. Although October is not much better - Sony's other film, Apt Pupil finally comes out, Universal is releasing Child's Play 4: Bride of Chucky, there may be a re-release of the original Halloween, Phantasm IV may be released, and Phoenix Pictures is releasing Urban Legend - but no vampire films and, more importantly, no other film released on the day before Halloween other than (a probable limited release) Michael Almereyda's The Mummy. So really, Halloween might be the ideal time to release it (Got me why Dimension is breaking tradition and releasing the newest Halloween two months earlier than usual). There's going to be some serious competition this fall for horror-related films and a Halloween release date has been known to work for Carpenter in the past... " Interesting news, but I dunno, if H20 also gets re-released on Oct 30th I think this could have serious problems. I mean, H2- will be widely seen as a new JC project (even though it isn't), and I am sure the Williamson connection will be pushed hard to get the Scream crowd in. I will try and get some confirmation on this rumour.
You Interview JC Yep, your chance to ask JC some questions. I am sure this will get a huge response. I will let the web-site owner of the project tell you about it, by just giving you the URL so you can get right over there.

TheUsual Suspects This section of the site has had a load of names added, but no new biogs. If anyone could add biogs, or add any names I havn't thought of, I would be very grateful.

News as of 8th June Lack Of News Ok, you might have noticed the recent lack of updates. Well, on top of writing up my thesis I have been in the US for over the last week. Monterey, CA, my first trip to the west coast of the US. Anyway, you don't want to know about that, I am just telling you why I have not put up much news recently. Added to that is the fact that things really are quiet. Now that Vampires is pretty much sorted out, and JC seems to be taking a break, the news is pretty thin on the ground.
A Sad Passing This news came in last week - "Regret to inform you that Darwin Josten, star of Assault on Precinct 13, died this week unexpectedly. He suffered from a rare form of leukemia and died in the hospital of complications from pneumonia." That is sad news, one of the things I never understood was why he never became a bigger star.
Halloween 7 Trailer This film is getting some very favourable comparisons with the original, and Mats Larsson has this to share - "I found the trailer for the new Halloween movie at http://www.theatres.sre.sony.com/trailerpark/ Love your JC page, it's without doubt the best on the net. Not many updates lately though. " Well, I miss a few updates and people are on at me already! :-) Nah, I don't mind, it's nice to feel that people want the site to be updated regularly. Matt adds this info -"> This just came into my office late Saturday that Halloween:H20, it's initial release date will be on Friday, August 21. This is odd I know, why in August? And JLC has another horrish flic coming out this summer called Virus...." thanks for the info Matt, August is a wierd date. Why not go for the classic and obvious date?
Vampires Preview - " address of my preview of John Carpenter's Vampires:Bookhouse's Previews: John Carpenter's Vampires http://www.oocities.org/Hollywood/Theater/3181/vampires.html Greg Dean Schmitz Bookhouse's Previews bookhouse@oocities.com"
EFNY on TV - "Hello, my name is Jonathan Taptich, I am emailing you to let you know that Escape From New York will air on Cinemax on June 12 at 10:00PM and on June 27 at 8:00PM. This gives many fans an opportunity to get a good recorded copy of Escape from New York without paying $80.00 at the Video Store. I was also wandering if you can help me out. I've been looking for a copy of the soundtrack of both Christine and Big Trouble in Little China. With the Christine soundtrack, I already have the John Carpenter and Alan Howarth version but I'm looking for the one with the song on like Come on Lets Go, and Bad to the Bone. If you know of anyone selling these please let me know. " If anyone has any of these soundtracks to sell, I will pass the message on to Jonathan.
New Unfinished (or Unstarted) Project Compupaz drops this info in "I was reading an old interview with J.C. during the release of THEY LIVE. While mentioning that Jim Danforth had contributed some animation effects to the picture, J.C. also stated that he'd like to team with Danforth on a completely animated feature in the future. Of course, this is ANCIENT stuff now, but I figured you might find it interesting any how. " That would be so cool, I really hope JC comes up with something like this. A completely new departure.
Mutant Chronicles Update Harry Knowles has some info on this old project that JC was once set to direct. It seems that it now stars Van Damme and that Roger Christian will direct. Go here for the full info.
Blade Update It seems that its release has been moved up to August 21st, which puts it before Vampires. It'll be interesting to see if this affects the Vampires marketing strategy.

News as of 22nd May JCs Next Project (A Little Update Again) - If you havn't joined the JC mailing list (In The Mouth Of Madness) then you are really missing out. Of particular interest was a short transcript of an interview with JC stating that he is probably going to take a long break until his next movie AND that movie is likely to be a straightforward (i.e. no supernatural stuff) thriller.
Vampires Release Date Patrick Kerr (The Films Of John Carpenter) has managed to get official confirmation of the Sept 11th release date for the US. However, his source points out that it is possible that it could move about by a few weeks. However, the Sept11th date is now THE DATE.
New Vampires Pictures Mohammad Khan (The Carpenticised Side Of The Web) has found some new and exclusive JC pics. Shoot off to his site to find them.

Sorry for the small news updates but things have been pretty thin lately.

News as of 15th May JCs Next Project - A Little Update Our old friend the anonymous source dropped this in " I asked JC about his next movie and at present he hasn't got one. He is going to take a long break. " Shame about that, I was hoping for a new film really soon, but that is just me being greedy I guess.
Sony and Columbia Short, sweet and to the point from Jaxstor - "hey marc.....sony does own columbia ", so that should clear up the distribution confusion.
On-Line Vampires Article This is also from Jaxstor - "Greetings from Ohio Marc. While tooling around yahoo i found an ineresting site you might find interesting. It is called cinenext....a French online movie site. It has much on Vampires including a very positive review, an interview with J C, pictures of J C and Sandy King, and some stills I have never seen anywhere else. If you have not seen this site you might find it interesting. Carp reveals in the interview he has made the cuts before the french release to keep from an x or nc 17 rating. http://www.cinenext.com/vampires/vampires.htm from there you can go to the review and stills the jaxstor " So it seems that the NC-17 rating was just a rumour. I can't imagine sony shelling out 15mil for an NC-17 distribution. (Remember Alta-Vista Transaltions for language translations as the article is in French). The interview is a very recent one, taken in JCs French retrospective (April 1998).

News as of 11th May Distribution Info and Release Dates - The official site (www.johncarpenter.com) is already proving its worth, as this e-mail shows - "Hi Bright, My name is Michael Roman... Here is something for you... I wrote the webmaster at the Official John Carpenter web site and got this response: Dear Michael, Thanks for visiting our new John Carpenter website! John Carpenter's Vampires will be released in the US on September 11th by Columbia Pictures. (We can't wait, either...)" So the word from the official site is Sept 11th, then Micheal goes on to say - "This strikes me as odd because I thought Sony had the deal wrapped up. The date of release sounds consistent with all previous reports. That is indeed a long time to wait for this film. I am going to Paris on June 1st ... what are the chances that the film will still be available in the city of light? " Does anyone know about this Columbia/Sony thing, I guess that maybe Sony own Columbia or something like that? Plus, can anyone help Micheal out and let me know if Vampires will still be easy to see in Paris on June 1st?
Soundtrack and Official Site Info I was also lucky enough to receive some info from the official JC site - " The first site links will be to the Endhunger Network, who John drew a Tshirt design for that raises money for programs to help alleviate the suffering of those who go hungry everyday across the U.S. Then we are about to set a link to Stone, the band who have a cut on the soundtrack for Vampires. The next one will probably be to Milan Records, who are releasing the soundtrack album, and then, obviously, to Sony Pictures. We'll go from there. I have to check with the website manager to see what their plans are for an e-mail update service. " So, now we also have some soundtrack info. Interesting stuff on that 'Endhunger Netwrok', I guess the US visitors will know more about that.
JC Mailing List Yep, I have already signed up for this (it is a bit quiet at te moment) so get over there and join us - "Greetings. I have just started a John Carpenter discussion list and I am having a hard time getting it off the ground... I only have on subscriber so far... I was wondering if you could post a link to the subscription page on your page.... Here is the URL:

http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/mouth_of_madness

Thank you, S.E. Hubbell, Moderator "

News as of 8th May A Fresh Point Of View After the deluge of reviews from people who have seen the film in France I thought it might be interesting to hear one of the first US points of view on the film, from a regular contributor to these pages, Don Q Pepioth. This guy actually went over to France and saw the movie, sounds like a great birthday present - " Whats up Bright , Don here , well i just wrote you to let you know i just got back to the States from my birthday trip to France ( YES I WENT TO FRANCE JUST TO SEE VAMPIRES FOR MY BIRTHDAY) and the trip was well worth it! Ive been a hardcore fan of the man since i was a little kid and thanks to your web page i was well informed about the world priemeir early enough to save money for a birthday trip out of the states ( which was my first....thanks bright) . Just like the rest of his movies, the less you expect, the better pay off you get, the music was phenominal as usual the best soundtrack id say since prince of darkness , kibbe displays some of the coolest vampire shots definitley since Dracula. Carpenter seems to have givin in to a new flashy quik style of editing which to myself is a step back from his trademark slow style which made classics and proved he still had it after Madness . He detroyed what could have been 2 of the coolest scenes in vampire attack history with worthless uncarpenter like time lapse reminicent of "Mobsters",remember how bad that was? maybe it was the only way to execute the scene because of the budget ,and if youve read the book dont even think that this story has anything to do with it , maybe about 14 % and the novel is still cooler . All in all it was a great film, dont take my critisism the wrong way ,youll definitely see the cool stuff and trust me it is a good . Sheryl Lee and Thomas Ian Griffith stole the flick while Baldwin and Shell made me laugh , cant compare jack crow here to the novel but its always cool to watch Woods .... I dont agree with with a couple of reviews i read on your page , especially the bad ones, comments like Vampire killers relying on gadgets the whole film didnt make any sense so dont believe everyone you read , upon my return i found the new JC sight and all i have to say is that as cool as it is i hope you dont stop updating your page cause yours is great . well good luck and hope you see it for yourself soon, personally i cant wait to see it in English. " Good to hear another positive, and thanks for the comments on the site. I'd just like to thank everyone for all the encouraging comments I have been receiving since the official site opened.
Vampires on A&E Al Selby keeps us up to date with this news - "Great site. I just thought I'd let you know that I'm here in the midwest U.S. & just got done watching a program on the A&E cable network that had some "Vampires" stuff on it. The program was a weekly show called "The Unexplained" & this week's episode dealt with people's facination of the vampire myth. It showed a couple clips from J.C.'s Vampires (one of the vampires coming out of the ground, & one of a long-haired male vampire drinking the blood from a woman's neck. It also had clips of an interview with Don Jakoby mostly dealing with WHY people are so facinated by the myth. At the end of the program they gave a toll free phone # where a person can order the episode for $19.95 + shipping. The # was 1-800-423-1212. " It definitely seems like Vampires are becoming flavour of the month again.
Blade and Vampires John Nada drops in with a combination of inside news and speculation about Vampires - " Weekly Variety did give the film a pretty positive review, if less than a rave. "an appealing mix of anti-clerical sentiment, unsentimental rebel codes and gung-ho gouging and splattering." "Lee harnasses a certain look in her eyes and various gradations of tembling to convey a striking range of conflicted emotions." "all the nudity, swearing , violence and gore fits smartly into the horror tradition---filling the envelope without pushing it. Lastly, it ws recently announced that BLADE is being postponed AGAIN, 9/29 IS CURRENT DATE, PUTTING vampires SEVERAL WEEKS AHEAD OF IT. I don't know if this is due to problems (which it has had) and it isn't ready to release, or if they just though that date a better target with less competition. If it is the latter they might move it up to beat Sony. I spoke with Largo's publicist a few minutes ago. she confrimed the Variety story on sony's purchase of the film for U.S., U.K. Holland and a couple others. She could not confirm the release date fo the US, saying she had only been told "in the fall." It would seem likely the early Sept date is right though. Any later in Sept and they are smack up against BLADE which will certainly have a huge ad campaign. If they go any later than that then they are up against Dimension's new HALLOWEEN film. " So Vampires could conceivably beat Blade, and the Sept release date seems pretty good as I am sure they would want to beat Halloween 7 to the cinema.
DVD Update Sherrif Bracket has given us another snippet of info - " Just one new tidbit...Columbia Tri-Star has officially scheduled the Starman DVD for August 11th, 1998. It will be 16x9 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, with a possible P&S version on the other. The only extras announced so far is a trailer...I emailed them to suggest getting a commentary track on there as well. Let's hope... "

News as of 7th May More Info On Vampires Distribution - UK Thanks to Casey Hopkins, from the fantastic Cabinet Of Dr Casey, for giving me the full info on the distribution, this includes info about overseas, including the UK. It's good to know I will also get to see the film - "Just noticed that both Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety are reporting the following - Sony Pictures Entertainment has picked up all media distribution rights in the United States and Canada for Largo Entertainment production "John Carpenter's Vampires" starring James Woods and Daniel Baldwin. SPE, which acquired Latin American rights to the picture at MIFED last year, has also acquired distribution rights in the United Kingdom, Scandinavia and the Benelux countries. Woods and Baldwin portray the leaders of a vampire-slaying team that uncovers a den of bloodsuckers led by a master vampire who challenges the interlopers to a deadly battle."
US Release Date? Casey came right back to drop in this UNCONFIRMED news "Me again. Now I'm hearing a release date of September 11 in the United States as well. Not sure how official that is, but I trust my source. " Thanks for letting us know Casey. Now, this date, if true, puts Vampires AFTER Blade, its supposed 'rival', as they are both Vampire films. But, I am not too sure how much they will affect each others box office. Blade has been having great previews, similar to the great press that Vampires is recieving. I don't really see this 'I will only see one Vampire film' problem, as I would expect people to just go and see good films that appeal to them. Plus, stir in the fact that Vampires is rumoured to be NC-17 (though the only confirmed we have is an R, I think), plus the fact that we can expect a load of the 'mainstream' critics to give JC their usual critical mauling; the whole situation becomes much more complex than just which movie comes out first. Plus, September feels like an awfully long way off!
Vampires Trivia This unconfirmed report from an anonymous source found its way into my mailbox. I can't vouch for its credibility, but it does fit in nicely with the reports I have had concerning the great 'family' atmosphere on the set of Vampires - "During the filming of Vampires, the stunt double for Daniel Baldwin was rushed to the ER with a collapsed lung. During the long night's wait to hear his outcome, the film's producer, Sandy King, learned from his fiance that the two of them had been trying to get married while on location. As incentive - and motivation - for him to get well, the Producer offered to throw him a full-out wedding in 48 hours time. The performer got out of bed just in time to walk down the aisle -- and had such a great time at the full catered reception afterwards, he had to be re-admitted to the hospital the next day."
Even more info on Vampires Distribution Mohammad Khan at the very cool Carpenticised Side Of The Web has scooped us all with this comprehensive overview of the distribution deal - " ...straight outta the cookie jar at CINESCAPE ONLINE - Sony Bites Into 'Vampires' It's been a big hit in Europe, but up until now no distributor has bitten at John Carpenter's Vampires for a stateside release, much to the chagrin of American John Carpenter fans. Finally, Sony Pictures Entertainment has picked up the film for distribution in the United States as well as the United Kingdom and Scandinavia from Largo Entertainment, according to Variety. Sony's Col TriStar Motion Picture Group previously had the rights to distribute the film in Latin America.

The Variety story states that many studios flirted with picking up the film, including MGM and Artisan Entertainment, even though it was rumored through the Internet that Dimension might distribute the movie. The Variety story adds that Sony picked up the film as part of their plan to appeal to the moviegoers likely to see movies like MGM's Disturbing Behavior, Dimension's Scream franchise and Sony's own I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. Sources inside say that Sony won distribution rights with a bid of $15 million. Furthermore, the studio plans on committing an additional $12 million to promote the orphan film, with a goal of getting 1,500 screens. With low-budget moneymakers like I Still Know... and Vampires as its bread-and-butter and a possible blockbuster-to-come in Godzilla, Sony may be standing financially tall by the end of 1998." Wow, 15mil practically covers the budget, and 12mil for advertising is just what we wanted to hear. Excellent stuff, bring it on.
Negative Vampires Review Ok, as Patrick Kerr has pointed out, I have stopped putting up reviews of the movie. But what the heck, I can change my mind and show you this. Follow the link to Garth's Dark Horizons page to find a slightly negative review of the movie. Personally, I think the reviewer picks up on some strage points withoput really discussing the film as a whole. We still have loads of VERY POSITIVE review with only a few negatives.

News as of 6th May Vampires Distributor This scoop was sent in by August 3 "FINALLY!!! It is a done deal! Sony Pictures entertainment has just aquire the US and Canadian rights to VAMPIRES. Still, no release date is set. This comes from the 5/4 edition of THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The answer has finally come! Now the question is when it's released? -August3 " As August says, finally!
JC DVD News Sherrif Bracet has got in touch with me to keep us up to date on DVDs - " Hello, this is Sheriff Brackett here, taking a much-needed vacation out in LA. Anyway, heard some news on some upcoming JC DVD releases. Seems 'Prince Of Darkness' and 'They Live' finally made it out, and both are remastered 16x9 anamorphic transfers supervised by Mr. Carpenter himself. Also, 'The Thing' is apparently the third most-requested title at Universal...let's hope they are listening. 'Starman' is still scheduled for 4Q 1998 at Columbia, as is 'In The Mouth Of Madness' at New Line. I've been pestering Image about releasing 'The Fog' and 'Escape From New York', but apparently the video rights have lapsed from New Line, but since 'Assault On Preceint 13' was a hit on DVD, they are looking into obtaining the DVD rights, as well as 'Dark Star'. Furthermore, both 'Memoirs Of An Invisible Man' and 'Village Of The Damned' are not currently scheduled at Warners or Universal, respectively, but both studios will eventually release them in the future. Lastly, Paramount Pictures has finally joined the DVD contingent as of April 25th, and 'Escape From LA' is to be one of their first 50 releases. That leaves only 'Big Trouble In Little China' unaccounted for...maybe 20th Century Fox will get it together and announce DVD support. Well, gotta get back to the beach. The Shape and I have nice game of poker waiting for us...he's a damn good bluffer!! "-" Uh, Sheriff Brackett here again. The Shape is going to, literally, kill me if I don't mention this other little tidbit of DVD news. Seems Goodtimes will be releasing Halloween II and Halloween III widescreen (for the first time) on DVD September 28th, 1998. Also, Anchor Bay, who did a horrible hatchet job on their Halloween DVD, will be doing a widescreen DVD of Halloween 4 due August 15th. Let's hope they get it right this time...I wouldn't want to be on the wrong end of his butcher knife for messing it up. Lastly, Anchor Bay is also releasing a special 2-tape 20th Anniversary Edition of the original Halloween on VHS to coincide with the release of Halloween: H20 (who thought up that title??). It will feature the widescreen version of the film, as well as a 2nd tape of the television footage, trailer, and new interviews with Jamie Lee, Nick Castle and others. This will ONLY be on tape...apparently Criterion is negotiating to do a special edition DVD of the film, similar to their cool but mucho-expensive laserdisc. Well, gotta run... "