But Im waiting to hear you both do a commentary onEscape From LA…?
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No-ones asked us, and no-one seems to care.
Thats Paramount, who are not real active in that area.
…and the same dynamic seems to apply toThey Live.
Whats your reaction to getting it right, but no-one believing you at the time?
Its the story of my life!
[laughs] A lot of my career has been like that.
Its just my view of the world.
So thats my fault.
Also, no love forVillage Of The Damned?
Id love a commentary on that?
Well, if anyone asks me, Ill do it.
But sometimes its fun to go against what the expectations are.
It was with Woods; it was with Kurt also.
But it was actually faith in the director that got them made in the first place.
How canHollywoodget out of that loop again?
Its a little of both; its always chasing after money.
Movies arent that special anymore.
Theyre appearing every week, we read about them and know about them on the internet.
Were smarter than the movie.
Is it harder to get a movie made now?
I havent tried actively in a long time.
I have a couple of things cooking, but its an interesting process.
Its very different now.
Are your new ideas genre-pieces?
Some are, some arent.
I have one that isnt and one that is…ones more of a straight thriller.
What about your life-long dream of making a western?
I kind of stopped believing in that.
You cant get a western made now.
[laughs] They dont believe that they can sell a western.
Maybe…but I dont think that there are any stars to play in westerns anymore.
We had two of the biggest with John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.
No, no…it hit big, but that was a long time ago, man.
Theyre remakingIn The Mouth Of Madnessnow
They are?
Yeah, there was an announcement yesterday.
Jeez, I didnt hear that.
[laughs]
Dont you think thats a bit recent a film to be in need of a remake?
I think it was 1995…
Ninety-four, I think.
Well, God bless em bless their hearts!
There are so many of your films being remade now whats caused the interest?
I have no idea.
I just smile [laughs]…its nice!
But theyre remakingProm Night, so how cool can it be, you know?
Its a beautiful place, New Mexico.
I love shooting there.
They have great strip clubs there [laughs].
And its a great wide-screen movie too.
Didnt the horrors of pan-and-scan ever tempt you to abandon the 2.4.1 ratio?
What theyre doing is altering the work.
I just let them do it.
No, I just compose for the moment with Panavision.
I dont worry about that.
A lot of things, you have to give up worrying about, or youll just blow up.
Cant worry about the after-market.
But people a lot of times dont like letterboxed versions.
The majority think that theyre getting cheated out of the full picture [laughs].
If thats true, have you kept that good habit in these post-CGI days?
[laughs] I havent really worked that much with computer graphics.
Ive worked alittlebit with em, and theyre a great tool, but theyre still just a tool.
Theyre a great matting tool, now…things can look pretty good.
Its really excellent, and you’re free to do a lot of nice things with it.
Dean would know more about that than I would.
But that goes back to the history of movies there was nothing there onKing Kong.
There was nothing there on the Ray Harryhausen films.
And on a lot of my movies there was nothing there inThe Thing!
They looked at nothing.
We didnt have the effects, so they looked at the wall.
Thats just part of movies; that didnt bother me.
The guys not really gonna go to hell, so I accept all that.
Would you like to really get your hands on that kind of technology, with a big budget?
It isnt an end in itself its a tool.
If the storys great, Id work on it.
This is kind of the year of killing kids in horror movies…
[laughs] Is it?
I didnt know that.
Is there a point where we should maybe leave the taboos intact?
Well, you have to decide that for yourself.
I know that child-on-child violence is something Im not interested in at all.
Im interested in a lot of things, but Im not interested in the abuse of children.
I did kill that kid in [Assault On Precinct 13].
It was strong, probably real strong.
I wasnt really connected with it at the time, because I didnt have kids.
I dont know if Id do that again.
Films likeFunny Gameshave a strong streak of sadism in them, with psychological as well as physical torture.
Are we trying to rationalise and digest events in the middle-east?
Yeah, thats partially it.
All the torture movies…well, you know wherethatcame from.
Thats not a mystery look at the Abu Ghraib photos.
So if theyre gonna do it, we can show it.
It just became that.
The war is grim; all war is grim.
Like a remake ofTheyLive…?
[laughs] Well, I dont know about that.
Theyre probably not going to do that; no-one wants to hear that.
People dont want to go to the movie theatres and have their beliefs pissed on.
They want to go and have a good time thats truly what everyone has gone for.
That whats I went for when I was a kid, to have a good time.
The seventies pushed a bit.
Steve McQueen was this ridiculously impossible hero…he did everything.
But the word auteur has just been fucked over, its been skull-fucked for all these reasons.
It doesnt really mean what people think.
Some of the best directors were ones that worked effortlessly in the Hollywood system.
I would say that Spielberg is an auteur.
If you look at his work, you could see his point-of-view.
Theres a man behind this, and thats not anonymous.
This j-horror idea of undeserved misfortune is fairly new to American horror.
Think of the men up there in the arctic inThe Thing they didnt deserve it.
And the people inWar Of The Worlds, and in the remake, they didnt deserve to be attacked.
We didnt do anything to them!
Im talking more of slasher films.
Well, its a kind of a ghost; its just a cultural ghost-story.
But I dont know if its deserved.
Wereallborn innocent and we dont deserve any of this shit [laughs]!
And whos going to answer for this later?
Similar thing withThey Live.
A hundred years ago, it wasnt like this, obviously.
Im attracted to that theme, put it that way.
Its just really funny.
Just great imaginative writing.
Speaking ofMouth Of Madness, why is it that H.P.
Lovecraft movies dont get made or get no budget even though theres constant interest?
Thats a real good question I dont know.
I tried to pitch an NBC mini-series,The Colour Out Of Space, and they didnt really care.
Theyd read it and say What is this shit?.
They dont get it.
They dont dig it.
Seems theyre not going to the right focus groups Lovecraft is right where their target audience is.
Believe me, Im hip.
You came out talking for the videogame F.E.A.R
Uh-huh.
Im probably going to do another F.E.A.R.
Theyre having a sequel that looks pretty good.
Did you play the Xbox game ofThe Thing?
I played parts of it.
I was actually a character in it.
The doctor, later on.
They killed me off though, so fuck em.
I wasnt the hero.
Is this the future of horror where you sacrifice narrative control for interactivity?
I dont know, because I never see the trends coming.
Im a gamer myself, and I love playing games.
I dont know if anything everscaresme in a game.
I get startled, though.
Something that creeps you under the skin?
Theyre all very cartoon-ish, but thats whats great about them.
Are you currently involved in videogame development?
It looks just great, like a great first-person shooter…it lookshard.
Hey, Im open to anything!
No-one ever asks me to do anything.
I dont believe it.
Is it a good catharsis for you?
You were very good inBody Bags…
Thank you [laughs]!
Im not a very good actor.
Behind the make-up, I can do anything.
I just discovered my character with that silly make-up on.
OBannons actually a very good actor.
He should pursue it, he could really be good.
TheEscape From New Yorkhead inCloverfield: I think and Im not alone in this that its too small.
[laughs] You mean the Statue of Liberty, right?
I dont know, it looks…have you seen the statue?
So it was in the movie.
It didnt make any fucking sense, but it sold the film.
It isforeverto the city [laughs]!
So I dont know about that, its like throwing something from Heathrow over to London Bridge.
So you go Wait a minute now….
But I accepted it.
Can you tell us anything about the style and feel of the newEscape From New York?
The script is very similar to the original.
Its updated but New Line went tankeroonie, and I dont know if it will be made now.
Would CGI be central to it?
They have no idea what it means, or the software.
Peoples reaction to it was exactly the same.
So we played it out my way, much to the anger of Sid Sheinberg he didnt like it.
It adds a narration.
Its just stunningly bad.
I stumbled on it and started watching it and I thought Oh my God, look at this….
But I guess they can do it.
But anyway, Universal were very kind to me.
Have you ever had more money than you needed to make a film?
No [laughs].
I dont think anybody has.
People say, heres a $175 million movie its ridiculous.
What size of project are you doing?
You cant do that big stuff for nothing.
I dont think any director ever gets more money than he wants.
I enjoy doing the music.
I got sick of it [laughs].
Its so much; I dont know if Ill do that again.
Ive done it for thirty years and I dont know if I want to do it anymore… Come on, here…after a while, you say What am I doing this for?.
But were waiting, John.
Well, big fucking deal [laughs]!
No, its still a breakneck pace.
A little bit, yeah.
I staggered through my career and came out the other end, alive.
I made some films that meant something to me.
So, man, what do you want out of life?
Celebrating John Carpenters Assault On Precinct 13
