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Iconic Filmmaker John Carpenter Opens Up About His 1996 Film 'Escape From L.A.,' 'The Halloween' Franchise & More

The celebrated horror and sci-fi motion pictures director had much to say about his work over the years.

Special Guest John Carpenter attends the screening of 'Escape from New York' at the 2019 TCM 10th Annual Classic Film Festival on April 13, 2019 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for TCM)

Legendary filmmaker John Carpenter is renowned in the world of horror and sci-fi genre films. He's responsible for classics like Halloween, The Thing, and Kurt Russell’s pair of Escape films. Fans can now revisit Carpenter's Escape from L.A. which landed on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on February 22nd. Released in 1996,  Escape from L.A. was the highly anticipated follow-up to the fan-favorite hit, Escape from New York, with Kurt Russell as anti-hero Snake Plissken, who is called upon to save the world from a doomsday device after a 9.6 quake levels most of Los Angeles. The film was panned by critics and bombed at the box office but is now considered a cult classic.

 

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter on why the film missed the mark at the time, the 74-year-old filmmaker revealed, "Nihilism is best taken at a distance, I guess. (Laughs.) That is one of the things I was criticized for, doing away with technology. I don’t know. People are able to enjoy this kind of thing at a distance. Whereas when the movie was released, it was up against Independence Day, which was up and bright and happy. It was fun—even though a lot of people got killed in it—it was fun."

Would he like to see any of his films get a sequel? Carpenter gave a vague answer when asked which of his creations he wished had a sequel, saying, "I would like to do a sequel to The Thing, or a continuation, something like that. But I don't know. See, there are a lot of things in this world I don't know."

 

And what about The Halloween franchise? The original 1978 Halloween was directed and co-written by Carpenter and the franchise has seen several reboots and sequels over time. The upcoming Halloween Ends is currently slated to hit theaters on October 14th. Will this be the end of the series? "Let me explain the movie business to you: if you take a dollar sign and attach it to anything, there will be somebody who wants to do a sequel. It will live. If the dollar sign is not big enough, no matter what, it will not live," Carpenter told ComicBook.com about what could happen after Halloween Ends. "I don't know, man. I don't know. This time, I do not know. They really want to end. They're going to shut it off, end it. It's what David (director David Gordon Green) has in mind. That's fine."