John Carpenter Net Worth

John Carpenter's Quotes

• In France, I'm an auteur; in Germany, a filmmaker; in Britain; a genre film director; and, in the USA, a bum.
• We're a violent country. We always have been. We embrace our individuality and our violence.
• Things haven't been going great lately. For a while now people haven't really been getting my movies. Certainly the box office hasn't been up to speed. Sure, some of my recent stuff hasn't been perfect, but neither has it been the shit that many have said. Critically, it's all become a bit of a crapshoot. The critics thought I was a bum when I started out and they think I'm a bum now.
• [on why he passed on Fatal Attraction (1987)] There wasn't a grain of originality in it - it was Geen genade voor Rivalen (1971) with Michael Douglas filling in for Clint Eastwood. Also, the original version, the script I read, had Glenn Close winning in the end by killing herself and thereby getting the moral upper hand. I knew the audience was never going to buy that. The audience was always gonna want to see the wife shoot the bitch. Sure enough, they shot the original script, previewed it, got booed off screen and went back and shot the ending you see today. That was a journey I couldn't be bothered to go on.
• I don't deny that commercial success means a lot to me, the best reviews you can get are at the box office.

Interesting Facts about John Carpenter

1. In the movie Change of Habit (1969) Elvis Presley plays a character named John Carpenter. In 1979 Carpenter directed the TV movie Elvis (1979) starring his good friend Kurt Russell.
2. Is a fan of the Quartermass movies (Het monster van Dr. Quatermass (1955), Quatermass and the Pit (1967)), wrote Prince of Darkness (1987) under the pseudonym of Martin Quatermass, and the village in In the Mouth of Madness (1994) is named after a rail station in "Quatermass and the Pit".
3. Appears in his own films under the name Rip Haight, appearing in in The Fog (1980), Starman (1984), Body Bags (1993), and Village of the Damned (1995).
4. Considers it bad luck to wear the hat of the show he's working on. Will not wear a crew cap until the film is over.
5. Loves Elvis Presley and old Cadillacs.
6. Is a major NBA fan and has a satellite dish installed on his location trailer to keep up with the games. Always has a portable basketball hoop on location.
7. He has a son, Cody Carpenter (born John Howard Carpenter Jr.), with Adrienne Barbeau.
8. Is a great fan of Sergio Leone and cast Lee Van Cleef in Escape from New York (1981) because of his work with Leone.
9. Carpenter's character Snake Plissken (of Escape from New York (1981) and Escape from L.A. (1996)) is about to become a comic book. Published by theCrossGen imprint Code 6 Comics, the book will be known as "John Carpenter's The Snake Plissken Chronicles". It is set for publication beginning in 2003.
10. With the exception of Escape from L.A. (1996), he has rarely made a sequel to any of his films. Has said that he got forced into writing Halloween II (1981), but refused to direct it because he "didn't want to direct the same movie again".
11. Biography in the following: John Wakeman, editor. World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945- 1985. pp. 184-189. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.
12. Praised longtime friend and frequent collaborator Kurt Russell for being a hard-working, professional actor who isn't afraid to take on roles that might hurt his image or make him look like a fool.
13. He is a big fan of The Beach Boys and Howard Hawks.
14. Was originally supposed to direct Firestarter (1984), and even had a screenplay written by Bill Lancaster. Both were replaced when The Thing (1982), a film on which they both collaborated, did poorly at the box office.
15. Said in a 1982 interview that he thought the R rating for Halloween (1978) was justifiable, but The Fog (1980) should've been rated PG.
16. Was given the chance to direct Mutant Chronicles (2008).
17. Was offered a chance to direct the Eddie Murphy film The Golden Child (1986), but turned it down.
18. Turned down the chance to direct Top Gun (1986).
19. Turned down the chance to direct Fatal Attraction (1987).
20. Was offered the chance to direct Armed and Dangerous (1986) but turned it down. The job went to Mark L. Lester who also directed Firestarter (1984), which was offered to Carpenter.