John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an Academy Award winning, American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.

His films are characterized by minimalist lighting and photography, static cameras, use of steadicam, and distinctive synthesized scores (usually self-composed). He describes himself as having been influenced by Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Nigel Kneale and The Twilight Zone.

With the exception of The Thing, Starman, and Memoirs of an Invisible Man, he has scored all of his films (though some are collaborations), most famously the themes from Halloween and Assault on Precinct 13. His music is generally synthesized with accompaniment from piano and atmospherics.

Carpenter is a big fan of widescreen, and all of his theatrical movies (with the exception of Dark Star) have been filmed in anamorphic with an aspect ratio 2.35:1.

Trivia:

In the movie Change of Habit (1969) Elvis Presley plays a character named John Carpenter. In 1979 Carpenter directed the TV movie Elvis (1979/I) (TV) starring his good friend Kurt Russell.

Is a fan of the Quartermass movies (The Quatermass Xperiment (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”.

Appears in his own films under the name Rip Haight, appearing in in The Fog (1980), Starman (1984), Body Bags (1993) (TV), and Village of the Damned (1995).

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.

Loves Elvis Presley and old Cadillacs.

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.

Favorite meal of the day is breakfast – any time of day.

He has a son, Cody Carpenter, with Adrienne Barbeau.

Is a great fan of Sergio Leone and cast Lee Van Cleef in Escape from New York (1981) because of his work with Leone.

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.

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”.

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.

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.

He is a big fan of The Beach Boys and Howard Hawks.

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.

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.

Was given the chance to direct Mutant Chronicles (2008).

Was offered a chance to direct the Eddie Murphy film The Golden Child (1986), but turned it down.

Turned down the chance to direct Top Gun (1986).

Turned down the chance to direct Fatal Attraction (1987).

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.

Is an avid fan of the Godzilla films. He considers the first Godzilla movie (Gojira) to be an inspiration for him.

Was approached to score Planet Terror (2007) for Robert Rodriguez, but was busy finishing up post-production on “Masters of Horror” (2005).

Close friend of actor Jeff Bridges.

Turned down the chance to direct Zombieland (2009).

In the 5th edition of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (edited by Steven Jay Schneider), 2 of his films are listed: Halloween (1978) and The Thing (1982).

In an interview, he stated that he takes much of the failure of his movies pretty hard. However, out of all the movies that he had done, he claimed that The Thing (1982) was the failure he took the hardest.

The Dead Zone is a 1983 science fiction-thriller film based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. Directed by David Cronenberg, the film stars Christopher Walken, Tom Skerritt, Martin Sheen, Herbert Lom, Brooke Adams, Anthony Zerbe, Ken Pogue, and Colleen Dewhurst. The plot revolves around a schoolteacher, Johnny Smith (Walken), who awakens from a coma to find he has psychic powers.

Tagline:  In his mind, he has the power to see the future. In his hands, he has the power to change it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4d1fugaW2o]

Trivia:

• Director David Cronenberg had to re-shoot the scene in which John Smith has his first premonition. It showed a little girl’s room burning and a small E.T. doll could be seen on one of the shelves. The scene had to be re-shot when Universal Pictures threatened to sue.
• Cronenberg fired a .357 Magnum loaded with blanks just off camera to make Smith’s flinches seem more involuntary; this was Christopher Walken’s own idea.
• Before the accident, Johnny instructs his class to read “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. Christopher Walken would later go on to appear in Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (1999).
• Martin Sheen’s character says he has had a vision that he will be the President of the United States. Sheen went on to play the President of the United States in the mini series “Kennedy” (1983) and in “The West Wing” (1999).
• Greg Stillson, played by Martin Sheen (né Ramon Estevez), has damning pictures taken of him by a photographer, played by Ramon Estevez, Sheen’s son.
• A stuntman was severely burned around the legs and groin when a squib went off too near him during the shooting of the WWII flashback sequence.
• The “sweat” on Christopher Walken’s face during the “burning bedroom” sequence was in fact a flame-retardant chemical that had been sprayed onto him. The resulting effect, which hadn’t been anticipated, looked surprisingly dramatic on film.
• David Cronenberg wanted to change the name of Christopher Walken’s character: “I’d never name someone ‘Johnny Smith’”, he quipped, but in the end it was left as is.
• One of only three David Cronenberg films that do not have a score by his friend, composer Howard Shore. This was due to studio politics in which Paramount wanted a more familiar composer to write the music for the film. Michael Kamen, who had written the music for the film Venom (1981) for the studio, was chosen instead.
• During the time Michael Kamen was composing the music for the film in London, he would play the score on the piano in his home. He received several complaints by his neighbors who asked, “Can you please stop playing that music? I can’t sleep and it’s giving my family nightmares.”
• This film (and Stephen King’s novel) are both loosely based upon the life of famous psychic Peter Hurkos. Hurkos claimed to have acquired his alleged powers after falling off a ladder and hitting his head.
• The poem Johnny reads in the beginning of the film is the end of “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe.
• There are several deleted scenes that were filmed and completed but have never been seen publicly and are thought to have been discarded prior to the films release. Among them: – A prologue showing John Smith as a boy (played by Stephen Flynn) who sustains a head injury during an ice hockey match. The scene features actor Sean Sullivan as John’s father. – An alternate scene of John Smith’s vision of the Camp David scene (featuring Martin Sheen) in which John himself appears in the vision as a helpless spectator. Photos of these scenes appeared in the December 1983 issue of Cinefantastique.
• Hal Holbrook was Cronenberg’s original choice to play Sherrif Bannerman, but Dino De Laurentiis rejected this idea as he had never heard of Holbrook at the time.
• In the WWII scene, civilians in the burning city are speaking Polish.
• Three people were involved in the James Bond franchise. Anthony Zerbe (Roger Stuart) would later appear in Licence to Kill (1989), while Christopher Walken (Johnny Smith) would later appear in A View to a Kill (1985). Michael Kamen, who did the music for this film, would later do the music for Licence to Kill (1989).
• Before his accident, Johnny Smith is an English teacher. Stephen King was also an English teacher before becoming a full-time writer.
• The Dead Zone was the first of several Stephen King novels and short stories that took place in the small town of Castle Rock. Others include Stand by Me (1986), Cujo (1983), The Dark Half (1993), and Needful Things (1993).