Indiewire Browse the indiewire network

The Playlist

The obsessives' guide to contemporary cinema via film discussion, news, reviews, features, nostalgia, movie music, soundtracks, DVDs and more.

Interviews

Actors

Directors

Archives

The Playlist

John Carpenter Wants Amy Adams To Star In His "Gothic Western" (In His Dreams)

  • By Drew Taylor
  • |
  • September 5, 2011 5:16 AM
  • |
  • 13 Comments
It's been well documented how much John Carpenter loves and is influenced by classic westerns – his breakthrough feature "Assault on Precinct 13" was an updated, urbanized version of Howard Hawks' "Rio Bravo;" his iconic Snake Plissken character is modeled after the western heroes John Wayne embodied; and his films often share a kind of compositional identity with early westerns with an emphasis on the kind of luxurious widescreen framing that Sergio Leone and John Ford employed. But he's never actually made an honest-to-god western himself, although 1998's mostly forgettable "Vampires," with James Woods playing a grizzled vampire hunter, probably comes closest. Well, if Carpenter has his way, his next film will be the straight up western he's always dreamed of (and he even has casting ideas already).
Read More »
More: Films, Actresses, John Carpenter, Modern Horror, The Fighter, Amy Adams, The Ward

Review: John Carpenter Retires, Forgets That He Had To Direct 'The Ward'

  • By Gabe Toro
  • |
  • July 7, 2011 2:02 AM
  • |
  • 6 Comments
An open field. A girl. A fire. A mystery. Ignoring a brief and ultimately irrelevant prologue, the beginning of “The Ward” immediately pulls us into the story of a classic horror convention, the Survivor Girl. Except, tantalizingly, we don’t know what she’s survived and, given a few orchestral cues, we may even question whether she has survived or not.
Read More »
More: Films, Actresses, Review, John Carpenter, Modern Horror, Amber Heard, The Ward

Book Review: 'Shock Value' Is The Must-Read Film Book Of The Summer

  • By Drew Taylor
  • |
  • July 5, 2011 1:57 AM
  • |
  • 3 Comments
Much has been written about the film revolution that took place during the 1970’s – when the studio system crumbled in inconceivable ways and a brood of bold young filmmakers, most of them wily, many of them bearded, forever changed the landscape of the film industry. But far less has been written about the seismic shift in genre films during the same period. Thankfully, Jason Zinoman, a crack film writer for the New York Times (he did last weekend’s great John Carpenter profile), has come forward to present a compelling and well researched look at those films in “Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror.”
Read More »
More: Francis Ford Coppola, Joe Dante, John Carpenter, Brian De Palma

Trailer: John Carpenter's 'The Ward' Is Filled With Hot Babes (And That Dude From 'Mad Men')

  • By Gabe Toro
  • |
  • January 6, 2011 9:27 AM
  • |
  • 2 Comments
Today we have our first full look at John Carpenter's "The Ward," the first film from the horror god since "Ghosts of Mars" back in 2001. This is the U.K. trailer, so when they say "Experience Terror From The Master" and then credit him as the man behind only "Halloween," we can only assume our good folks in England haven't yet experienced "The Thing," "Assault on Precinct 13," "Big Trouble in Little China" or "They Live." You poor limey bastards.
Read More »
More: Films, John Carpenter, Modern Horror, The Ward

John Carpenter To Direct Comic Adaptation 'Darkchylde'

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
  • |
  • November 1, 2010 9:26 AM
  • |
  • 0 Comments
First Look At 'Trespass'; New Films From Jennifer Lynch, Dennis Iliadis & Niels Arden OplevEven though "Fangland" with Hilary Swank seems to have fallen apart, John Carpenter seems well on his way with a new project, an adaptation of the comic "Darkchylde." Created by Randy Queen, the comics follow "a young girl named Ariel Chylde who regularly sheds her skin and turns into her deepest, darkest nightmares." Richard Taylor of WETA recently dropped some test footage from the film (which you can watch below) and indicated they hope to get things going on the film within the year. We've never really paid much attention to the comic, and considering Carpenter hasn't made a film worth caring about in over a decade (this year's "The Ward" was dead-on-arrival at TIFF) we're finding it difficult to muster up too much excitement about this one. But in case dorks start complaining about the CGI in the WETA clip, it's test footage guys, nothing close to final, so relax.
Read More »
More: Films, John Carpenter, Joel Schumacher, Dennis Iliadis, Jennifer Lynch, Genre Films, Modern Horror, Trespass, The Keep, Visibility, Ehren Kruger, Allan Loeb, Darkchylde, The Demonologists, Niels Arden Oplev

Follow Us

Email Updates

What's Poppin'

Recent Comments

Blog Roll

Around The Network

the network

indiewire

categories