John Carpenter's GHOSTS OF MARS greenlit and moving forward

Hey folks, Harry here. Well all you Carpenter faithfuls, good news today! John Carpenter's GHOSTS OF MARS.... well, it's actually going to be made! Yippee!

For quite some time there was some doubt whether or not this project would be moving forward because of weirdo studio head bumping mating rituals, but it seems that all of that is behind us now. When John Carpenter was down here in Austin, he seemed to be real iffy about the project and was looking to possibly make an independently produced (by him) shot on Digital movie that he would control 100%.

While I'm still hoping that he'll do that, I'm very excited about GHOSTS OF MARS. Now, I know the casting on this sounds weird as hell, but folks... Once you have read the script, the casting makes sense. No... really it does.

Ice Cube is in as Desolation, he's the Plisskin/Mad Max/John Voight from RUNAWAY TRAIN type of character. One of those... too mean to live types. Then there is Jason Statham as Jericho... Once again, you'll just have to see him in the role. You might remember Jason as Bacon in LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS. He has a ton of really cool lines in the latest draft of the script.

Then there is Courtney Love. Now I know there is this really vocal anti-Courtney Love thing in the world, but she really is right for this character, in that same sort of odd way that Roddy Piper was balls on perfect for THEY LIVE. Courtney's character is a no-nonsense cop, not the head screw, just one of the grunts... She's been on the job for a while, but keeps being passed over for promotion because... well, she isn't a lesbian. In this future, Women Rule and men are lowly dogs. She's a breeder, which means... she'll bare children and sleep with man. But as a result she's treated as a lessor.

To me with all the intense situations and scary Ghost stuff... it's this aspect that really makes me smile. This is a hardcore John Carpenter written scifi-action-horror film set in a female dominated society. (ahem... now do you understand why there were political problems?) As usual John is exploring alot more than... just action.

Pre-Production on GHOSTS OF MARS started today. Shooting will begin on August 1st... at least that's what some folks doing some work on it tell me. So, hang on... this is the first 100% John Carpenter film we've seen in a while.