John Carpenter's unrealized projects
"[1] After several attempts, the project was about to start filming in June 1994 under the helm of director John Dahl with Dolph Lundgren in the lead role, but the production was shut down because of legal disputes regarding the US distribution rights claimed by several companies.
[2] In 1981, during filming of The Thing, Universal Pictures offered him the chance to direct Firestarter, based on the novel by Stephen King.
[6] In the end, his screenplay was completely rewritten by Wallace C. Bennett, with Carpenter's official credit on the film being an executive producer.
[10] In 1984, Carpenter was one of many directors attached to helm Santa Claus: The Movie, intending to cast Brian Dennehy or Wilford Brimley as the titular character.
[11][12] However, Carpenter hated the screenplay and pushed to write his own draft, additionally wanting to compose the film's musical score.
In the mid-80s, a film version of the novel was set to be written and directed by Carpenter but it was canceled by production studio New World Pictures.
He did not see it being much of a success at all and thought that fighting the Soviet Union in the third act would not do any favors for already hostile international relations during the Cold War.
"[17] In an August 1986 interview, John Candy revealed that Carpenter was initially attached to direct the film Armed and Dangerous, but was eventually replaced by Mark L.
[18] Cannon Films, who had just finished 1986's release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, approached Carpenter to write and direct Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.
[19] However, producer Moustapha Akkad rejected the Etchison script, calling it "too cerebral" and insisting that any new Halloween sequel must feature Michael Myers as a flesh and blood killer.
Etchison said, "I received a call from Debra Hill and she said, 'Dennis, I just wanted you to know that John and I have sold our interest in the title 'Halloween' and unfortunately, your script was not part of the deal.
Years later, after their bodies are brought back, the soldiers, who were members of an Army project involving dark experiments, rise up from their graves, raid the armory from a nearby base, and attack the town in which they were buried, killing everyone during Christmas night.
[23][24] Due to problems in pre-production, the movie was never made, although the original 1988 script has gained a cult following from fans of Carpenter, Black and Dekker.
In 1989, Carpenter was offered The Exorcist III, and met with writer William Peter Blatty (who also authored the novel on which it was based, Legion) during the course of a week.
The film's relatively modest budget escalated towards $20 million, when Cher was cast in the lead role of the driver in post-plague America who must deliver a life-saving serum to save Salt Lake City.
The rights were reverted to Columbia Pictures and asked Carpenter to return for a sequel, who immediately agreed due to the fun he had working on the first film.
In a 2001 interview, screenwriter Don Jakoby said that he originally wrote Evolution as a serious science fiction horror thriller that was described as "humorless and violent" and "The Thing meets The Andromeda Strain", and first approached John Carpenter, who he had worked with on Vampires, about directing the project.
Carpenter's 2001 film Ghosts of Mars was planned to be the first of a potential trilogy, as it ended on a cliffhanger with demons attacking the city.
Carpenter said that he was later notified that Sony Pictures would be moving forward with a direct-to-DVD sequel to Ghosts Of Mars and invited him to be an executive producer, but the film never happened.
[44] In 2003, Carpenter was writing an anime spin-off of Escape from New York, with Outlaw Star's Mitsuru Hongo slated to direct.
[48][49] In 2004, a Snake Plissken video game and anime series were in development, with Carpenter, Kurt Russell, and Debra Hill involved as producers.
He had been tapped to helm the pilot, seemed excited to do it, then faded away from the project when it transitioned into becoming the feature film directed by Ruben Fleischer.
Carpenter did enjoy the film's concept and would later agree to direct The Ward due to its similarities in tone and theme with The Haunting in Connecticut.
[58] In August 2007, Randy Queen, creator of the comic book character Darkchylde, revealed to Newsarama that a movie is in the works.
But when a riot breaks out and the prisoners take him hostage, a lifer played by Nicolas Cage is forced to help the young man out.
[66] In 2013, Carpenter expressed interest in making a Dead Space film, due to his desire for a horror franchise movie that might surpass Resident Evil.
[71] In June 2015, TheWrap reported that Dwayne Johnson was developing a remake of Carpenter's 1986 film Big Trouble in Little China to star as Jack Burton and produce with his Seven Bucks Productions partners Dany and Hiram Garcia.
"[74] On August 27, 2018, new development surfaced when they announced the film will be a sequel, instead of a remake, and Johnson will play an unknown main character, not Jack Burton.
[78] On July 6, 2017, Carpenter announced that he was developing Simon R. Green's novel Nightside into a television series for Universal Cable Productions.
[79][80] On July 6, 2017, Carpenter announced that he was adapting his graphic novel Tales for a Halloween Night into a television series for the Syfy channel.
