Happy Birthday: John Carpenter

John Carpenter

Born: January 16, 1948 in Carthage, New York, USA

[on why he passed on Fatal Attraction (1987)] There wasn’t a grain of originality in it – it was Play Misty for Me (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.

Halloween 1978 dir. Carpenter Starring Curtis The Thing 1982 dir. Carpenter starring Russell Wilford Brimley

 

 

They Live 1988 dir. Carpenter Starring Roddy Piper