The JOHN CARPENTER panel
by The Arrow

Since John Carpenter was preceding Sam Raimi and the SPIDER-MAN panel, half the people in the audience acted like a-holes during this one. Carpenter was running a little late so Joanna Cassidy and Richard Cetrone (in full costume…wow…imposing) came out to kill some time and talk about GHOST OF MARS (Carpenter’s upcoming flick). But the crowd kept on taking pot shots at Cassidy who really didn’t know how to handle it.

 I was personally ashamed to be sitting in the audience with all of these people and felt bad for Cassidy who was dying up there. Carpenter eventually showed up 10 minutes later but the crowd was still hinting at SPIDER-MAN! They even groaned when Carpenter asked what they thought of the “Ghost of Mars” trailer! WTF?!? That pissed Mr. Carpenter off (no shit) and he proceeded to answer some questions. Here’s what I learned.

• He said that the story in “Ghost Of Mars” is kind of like an inverted version of “The Thing”.
   
• He said that his involvement in “Vampires: Los Muertos” (the sequel to Carpenter’s 1998 film “Vampires”) is basically just him “collecting a check” (you gotta admire the guy’s honesty). The film stars Jon Bon Jovi as the vampire hunter and Carpenter seemed quite surprised to admit that Jon was actually very good in the early stuff that he’d seen of the movie.
   

• He said that most of his films are misunderstood and underrated and when asked about which ones he considered to be the most underrated, he said “They Live” and “In The Mouth Of Madness” (which he said went over everybody’s head).
  
  

• He said that “Ghost of Mars” is kind of like the film “Zulu” (what’s that?) but that anyone looking for spirituality shouldn’t be seeing his film.
   

• His inspirations for “Ghost of Mars”: He had wanted to make a Mars movie since the 1980’s. He read a book about colonization and felt like it would be kool to make a frontier/western movie set on Mars.
   

• “The Escape From New York” DVD will be out in either late 2001/early 2002. It will feature the same commentary like on the laserdisc version that’s available now.
   

• He said he would like to go back to his roots with his next project and do another “balls-out” horror film in the vein of “Halloween”.

I hate it when shit like this happens at a Con! I can’t believe that this crowd actually dissed John Carpenter. The man is responsible for some of the finest genre films ever put to the screen. They should've given him his half-hour and waited for SPIDERMAN instead of acting like morons. The crowd ruined this panel for me. Sometimes people can be such complete A-HOLES! Too bad that I forgot my chainsaw at home…

SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 2001

Another year, another San Diego Comic Con for the Arrow and I. Okay, so this year's event wasn't as exciting or interesting to us as the one presented last year (see our entire coverage of that event here), but I guess we did still have quite a few things to check out, as presented below:

The Spider-Man/ Sam Raimi panel:
Sam discusses the "Spider-Man" movie that he is currently directing, answers some questions and gives us all a sneak 5-minute preview scene from the movie in question...

The Kevin Smith panel:
Kevin discusses everything in his View Askew universe, talks about his upcoming movie "Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back", his future and even shows us some behind-the-scenes outtakes and more...

The John Carpenter panel:
Legendary director John Carpenter comes to the Con to discuss his latest horror flick "Ghost of Mars", answers some questions and gets dissed in the process...

The Planet of the Apes Q&A with Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa:
Cary discusses Tim Burton's project and answers questions...

The Joss Whedon panel:
The man behind "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" discusses everything and the kitchen sink in here...

Glen Morgan/James Wong present "The One":
The men behind last year's surprise hit "Final Destination" discuss their upcoming sci-fi/thriller starring Jet Li and more...

The Mick Garris panel:
Director Mick Garris discusses all of his films including his TV version of "The Shining", "The Stand" and his upcoming Stephen King movie "The Talisman"...

Interview with David Naughton:
You might not remember the name, but you will definitely remember his part as the guy who turned into the werewolf in John Landis' classic film "American Werewolf in London". The Arrow interviews him here...

Misc. stuff:
JoBlo reviews "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" and the "Movie Webmaster panel" while The Arrow reviews "Elvira's Haunted Hills" and the "Jason X" trailer...

The official JoBlo.com / 2001 San Diego Con Photo Gallery:
Pictures from our trip to California for anyone who gives a shit...

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