![]() ![]() Striking a Chord in the Shadow of ‘Independence Day’ Bruce Campbell plays the sinister Surgeon General of Beverly Hills in John Carpenter's Escape From LA. Don’t watch too carefully I’m a terrible actor.”). In fact, the father and son duo – with collaborator godson Daniel Davies – just contributed the main title music for Dave Grohl’s foray into cinema, Studio 666 (“We just happened to have a piece of music that we were working on so it worked out perfectly,” he says before adding, “I’m in. ![]() Music also allows him to work closely with his musician son, Cody Carpenter - so there’s a lovely synergy there, too. He said in an interview with Fandom a while ago that he felt his music professor father was more proud of his music than his movies and there’s a hint that as the polymath enters the next stage of his life, perhaps he’s looking to honour his dad - on some level at least - by more tightly embracing composing and performing than he ever has before. If you’re wondering whether bad reviews or even bad box office are a reason for Carpenter apparently giving up directing, it doesn’t seem that way. I’ve had so many movies come out that either got bad reviews or were misunderstood, I felt, and then later reassessed. “How did I feel about its reception?” asks Carpenter, casting his mind back to 1996 and the labeling of Escape From LA as a ‘box-office bomb’. The last film Carpenter directed was 2010 psychological horror, The Ward. Having composed the scores for most of his films and continuing to write for his Lost Themes albums and more, he has been touring internationally in recent years an enthusiastic and energetic septuagenarian, performing his signature synth music to the world. Return in the allotted time with the weapon, and get the antidote… Reassessing a Box Office Bomb From L-R: Steve Buscemi as Map to the Stars Eddie, Pam Grier as Hershe Las Palmas, and Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken.Īs Escape From LA is released on 4K Ultra HD for the first time, 26 years after it first premiered, Fandom chats to John Carpenter about the film and the pre-eminent director’s plans for the future, curious as we all are about a return to directing for a true master of cinema.Ĭarpenter is an artist seemingly more passionate about his music these days than getting behind the camera. All the while, Plissken, of course, is under threat of death after being infected with a man-made virus called Plutoxin 7 that he’s told takes around 10 hours to kill. Plissken must track down a superweapon stolen by a revolutionary intent on taking back control of the US. The film reunites us with Plissken who is sent on a mission to Los Angeles – now an island cut off from the United States mainland and used as a dumping ground for those who don’t conform to ‘Moral America’ aka the government’s tyrannical totalitarian laws. ![]() In the years since, it’s gained a strong cult following and watching it today is chilling because it’s eerily prescient. Escape From LA, the sequel to seminal sci-fi Escape From New York, is one film that has been re-evaluated by some in later years.Ĭoming 15 years after the original firmly embedded Kurt Russell in the role of iconic eye patch-sporting antihero Snake Plissken, Escape From LA was met with mixed reviews and failed to recoup its budget at the box office. Carpenter’s films are masterful, rich, and eccentrically and uniquely offbeat. Some were instant classics, some growers, some misunderstood and underappreciated. He’s made movie after movie, in a career that spans some 50 years. Visionary director John Carpenter has always been ahead of his time. ![]()
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