John Carpenter's GHOSTS OF MARS

Hey folks, Harry here. First off, let me show ya this letter I got from Uncapie today. I think, this is something I'm going to do from time to time. And that's to feature a question, and then answer it for you fans. I don't have time to answer every question... Only the ones that make me feel like answering. So here we go...

Harry,

I was talking to a reliable source today about John Carpenter's "Ghost Of Mars". The basic story is "Assault On Precinct 13" on the red planet. KNB will be doing the effects on it with filming to being a few months down the road.

Can't Carpenter come up with a better idea than this?

Chief Uncapie has spoken.

Alright... So what question am I answering? "CAN'T CARPENTER COME UP WITH A BETTER IDEA THAN THIS?"

The answer is YES. While I haven't read the script, I have been lucky enough in life to have spent some time with John Carpenter and his lovely wife and producer, Sandy King in their home in Los Angeles. And, I have had conversations about GHOSTS OF MARS.

Comparing ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 with GHOSTS OF MARS is a bit like comparing... oh... let's say TANGO AND CASH and BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA. Assault took place in a single location, specifically a closed down Precinct Headquarters and dealt with the transfering of the a particularly dangerous criminal. A bunch of gang members attack the jail and the little group... well... if you haven't seen it, I don't want to spoil it for ya. BUT... it really is a great little siege film. Kinda like an urban Alamo type of thing.

From what I gather about GHOSTS OF MARS is that... there is weird ass shit happening all over the place. There is a 'precinct-type' place where the characters are supposed to be holed up for a while and there is a dangerous criminal type. But that's about where the comparisons will end. From what I heard and saw... there's multiple cities, trains, hot-air balloon things, decapitations out the wazoo, ghosts and many other creepy thingees. The point is, this film doesn't stay in the jail. It's not just a siege movie. Now believe me, I've been begging for a script from John and Sandy... as well as working all my connections over at SONY, as well as the many agencies where the go out for actors. So far... They've done a damn good job of keeping it quiet.

I do know that it looks like my head will be chopped off and put upon a pike in the film. I'm going to be headed out to KNB to have them use up all the plaster in the world to make a cast of my ENORMOUS head, so they can then use all the latex and rubber in the world to cast my head.

John refers to this film as his ZULU movie. Somewhere down the line, someone made a vocal comparison of ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 with GHOSTS OF MARS, but that's really not very accurate. There are some aspects that look kinda the same.... but this film will be far more violent, far more visually exciting... from the character descriptions I've heard... the make up of the group is very different... almost completely opposite from in ASSAULT. And then there's the bit about how it's not just set in a jail.

The last thing I heard on the project was that they were looking at their female actresses at this point... but that nothing has really been locked in. And I do know that the scoop that Patrick at Coming Attractions posted about Courtney Love being approached was true, but it is not known if she accepted. Also, the MATRIX fight choreographer is not going to be doing the fights in GHOSTS OF MARS, Sandy told me that it'll be the guy that choreographed the fights in FIGHT CLUB, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA and so on. I forget the gentleman's name right now. And... there ya go.