Cool News
From the set of GHOSTS OF MARS!!!
Harry here, and ya know folks... there's a lot of Carpenter talk right now.. because this coming FRIDAY THE 13th of October has one helluva line up at the Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles with Carpenter and nearly everyone still around from the making of HALLOWEEN taking the stage to tell em how it was and how it went. Well, Thomas Dunson here went along for quite a bit of the filming of Carpenter's latest film... GHOSTS OF MARS, and he's here to lay it out for us. Sounds like shooting and production has been going quite well. Here ya go....
Hiya Harry,
It's been awhile....I don't have the knack for writing witty reviews like the
rest of your gang but I thought I would send you a little info on GOM. Chances are, this is old stuff but
if not, then enjoy.
In all honesty, I'm not a big fan of Carpenter's films but I am
definitely a fan of both John and his wife, Sandy King. I have a great deal
of respect for his way of working and Sandy's comittment to seeing John's
vision come to life. I spent a great deal of time on the set, on location
shooting from 6pm to 6am and 2 weeks in a wharehouse shooting from 3pm to
3am. The crew was extremely professional and the atmosphere was very relaxed
for an LA production. It helped to have an excellent AD staff and the UPM
maintained an outwardly appearance of calm even when things were getting
crazy.
As for the script, a page turner but your basic western formula...except it
takes place on Mars and gets high marks on the drool meter for Natasha
Henstridge playing the lead role. Jeff Imada coordinated a kick ass stunt
team and the special effects alone will be worth the price of admission. I
didn't see every single take but what I saw of Clea Duvall and Jason
Statham was very good....both are charming and down to earth with Jason
holding poker games with the crew and Clea doing time as a set PA. Hopefully,
their best acting won't end up on the cutting room floor. Joanna Cassidy
looks amazing and Cube was pretty much himself.
The set was totally amazing and will blow your mind when you see it. Add to
that nearly a hundred extras dressed as ghost warriors, police and miners and
you really get the feeling that you're on another planet. The train, complete
with depot and interiors, had their very own SFX team and group of operators
and they did an excellent job maintaining such a huge piece of machinery
amidst the rain, wind and blowing gypsum.
The awesome special effects makeup and prosthetics was handled by KNB and the
whole team is amazing. Several of the guys from makeup stunned the rest of
the cast and crew after attending a local party one night and joining several
other bands in a jam session blasting out some old ACDC tunes. The next day
not only were they part of the highly respected KNB team but they were now
rockstars and we have the photos to prove it.
They are finally back in LA and are scheduled to wrap shooting somewhere
around the 19th of October and a release date in 2001. Anyway, sorry if this
is old news.
Keep swingin'
Thomas Dunson
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I would just like to say that the man makes some kick-ass films and occasionally some real classics. Ghosts of Mars sounds pretty mad so far.
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John Caprenter was the fucking MAN. Notice the use of past tense. This is the guy who gave us Dark Star, Assault OP13, Escape from NY, The Thing, Big Trouble....man, I could go on - all fucking masterpieces if you ask me. But what happened? Memoirs of an Invisible Man? Village of the Damned? Escape from L.A.? VAMPIRES???? Where is the genius gone? Has our man Carpenter been cunningly replaced a la 'Body Snatchers' with an alien hack of sorely limited talent? Come back to us John! Make Ghosts of Mars the way you used to make 'em chief! Here's hoping......
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'Escape from LA'. I weep every time I hear them.....
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I said this on the last talkback, and I'll say it again. This film is going to kick some ass. I'll be happy to go so far as to say that you will be happy to consider this amongst your favorite films, if what I've seen and heard can be trusted, and I think I can. I can't ask anyone to completely trust me, but all I have to say is that out of respect of the master, even if the recent stuff isn't your cup of tea, I don't think anyone has any right to pass negative judgement on this film before it's been completed. He's returning to his roots established in The Thing, EFNY, Big Trouble, They Live...what he did well...creating a world, no matter how big or small, and giving us natural characters for that world, and pitting them against some very unnatural things. I think that's cool, taking a reliable Carpenter formula, and recombining all his (and our) favorite aspects, and then placing them in a world so far beyond our own it can't help but be cool. And this time, instead of scruffy Kurt Russell (for all the badass he is) this time it's Natasha Henstridge. Mmmmmmmmm.
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is still Halloween. It's the only good slasher movie ever made.
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Oct 09, 2000 1:53:31 PM CDT
I hope that Harry Jay Knowles performs well in his role as "A He
by miracleman
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A short email would be much appreciated. Characters that include "ghost warriors"? Sounds like a Hong Kong flick. What is the story?
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This does sound intriguing, & although I hate getting up my hopes for JC flicks (anything released after Prince of Darkness, excepting Mouth of M) because of the inevitable cinematic-disillusion fallout, this description is a lot more reminiscent of Thing/Big Trouble/Assault on Precinct 13- days than, say, Vampires-esque. (If you're a Vampires fan, well, you're entitled to your opinion and all .. but WHY?!? Outside of Sheryl Lee, that is - let's hear a non-cleavage reason) What the hell, I'll start to bring those hopes up yet again just this once .. but this is the last time. C'mon, deliver the goods this time around, Mr. Carpenter - the many fans of your work haven't given up just yet.
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...it was pretty hard to get to, but these short pasty guys with big black eyes gave me a ride and all I had to do was let them butt-probe me. When they let me out, I was wearing my Personal Atmosphere Belt so I could breathe, and wouldn't freeze or explode. I got directions to the set from some of those trading card Attack Martians. Just go right around the face, cross the canals and turn left at Cydonia. I hitched a ride on one of those three legged contraptions that almost wiped us out at the end of the 19th century. The driver looked at me funny, but I told him I was packing germs, so he backed off. On the set, Carpenter was pissed because John Carter had been buy, shaking him down for permit money, which he'd also had to pay to the exiled Emperor Ming. When Uncle Martin and Marvin came by to collect too, I thought Johnny C. was going to shit a brick! I never saw anybody chain smoke inside a breathing helmet before. I went over and checked out craft services. The egg salad didn't look too fresh so I passed. I booked a ride home on The Doug Quaid Express to avoid further butt-probings.
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What a laugh! I love when fans of this guy try to make him out to be some kind of Horror movie "artist". He's the modern day Roger Corman. He makes movies fast and cheap and for that reason they almost always turn a profit. This is why Hollywood cotinues to fund his "visions". Kubrick he ain't. Come to think of it, he ain't much of a Carpenter anymore either.
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But he's not some horror demi-god, either. Not to me, at least. I actually liked parts of Vampires, but much of it put me to sleep, literally. Big Trouble in Little China is still of the coolest camp films ever made. Not a big fan of his work overall, and the ensemble casting for Ghosts of Mars sounds pretty weak. I just don't picture any of these people having good chemistry together.
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Carpenter has as much vision as filmmakers like Hitchcock or Cronenberg that have specific thematic concerns that carry on from film to film and lend a personal stamp to their body of work. Again and again, Carpenter continually harks back to themes that began in his earliest work of alienation, of a distrust of authority, of cynical loners who have to emerge as heroes, of a morbid, apocalyptic outlook of humanity's lot in the universe. A person may not like what Carpenter has to say or how he says it but it's clear his films are an extension of his own views and philosophies. And any way you cut it, that's a creative vision.
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