John Carpenter Has a Brutal Gangster Film in the Works?

[GreenScar]

The legendary horror master John Carpenter (seen above) hasn't done any work for the big screen since 2001, when he last wrote and directed Ghosts of Mars, a movie which most have come to hate. However, there's apparently a gangster project floating around with Carpenter's name attached - titled The Prince. Carpenter is actually in pre-production on a film with Nic Cage titled Riot.

Devin recently spoke with Jeremy Passmore, who is writing the script for The Prince along with Andre Fabrizio. "We were trying to do Unforgiven as a gangster movie, because we're both just huge fans of that." So far so good - but what is it about? "The premise is that this guy was the most [badass] gangster of all time in Las Vegas, and he's left the life and created this whole new world. His wife died but he's raising his kid. He's living in the middle of nowhere and he's this very religious, trying to live a straight life guy. His daughter is now going to school at UCLA and she disappears, and he goes looking for her. The trail leads to Vegas and he has to go get her, and the entire city kind of comes down on top of him."

If you're familiar with John Carpenter, you know that a gangster movie isn't exactly his forte (horror is). "It's a bit of a departure. It's definitely more of a very character based crime movie." Passmore adds that the version Fabrizio and Carpenter were happiest with was "brutal and violent and dark at the end." Unfortunately he doesn't know the status or whether or not this will ever get made, but at least they've got a script and a director. From this concept alone, I'm actually very interested in seeing this, and I really hope it comes together. Carpenter doing a gangster movie might actually result in something quite badass.

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[Diesel]

Carpenter and Cage’s ‘Riot’ Not Happening

Last year we brought you news that legendary director John Carpenter and king of crazy haircuts Nicolas Cage were teaming up to make the prison action film Riot (which was also known as Scared Straight).

I recently interviewed the producer of the film Katie Chonacas who gave me the disappointing news that it looks like the film is dead.

The original synopsis of the film was as follows:

When I asked Chonacas what the progress of the film was she said:

I feel that this is a shame. Carpenter has been AWOL from our screens since directing 2001’s Ghosts of Mars (although he did helm a couple of episodes of TV’s Masters of Horrors) and it would have been good to see him back in Assault on Precinct 13 territory. Having said that, Chonacas doesn’t say that Carpenter has dropped out - with a bit of luck Kurt Russell will sign on and we’ll see another great Carpenter and Russell team-up.

Come on, a guy can dream!

Carpenter currently directing The Ward starring Amber Heard, which should open next year.

Look for the interview with Katie Chonacas soon on Screen Rant.

[Steve]

I just watched The Thing a couple of days ago and it's an awesome sci-fi/horror flick. I would love to see Carpenter and Kurt Russell team up for something else.

[deckardp]

I think this one sounds more interesting than the Riot movie. But, hasn't a search for a kidnapped daughter been done before in Taken?