This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (May 2009)

Simon Reynolds (born June 19, 1963 in London, England; raised in Hertfordshire) is an English music critic who is well known for his writings on electronic dance music. Besides electronic dance music, Reynolds has written about a wide range of artists and musical genres, and has written books on post-punk and rock. He has contributed to Melody Maker (where he first made his name), The New York Times, Village Voice, Spin, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The Observer, Artforum, New Statesman, The Wire, Mojo, Uncut, and others. He currently resides in the East Village in New York City, USA with his wife, Joy Press, and their children, Kieran and Tasmine.

History and career[link]

Reynolds' first experience writing about music was with Monitor, a fanzine he helped to found in 1984 while he was studying history at Oxford. The publication only lasted for six issues.^{[citation needed]} When it was discontinued in 1986, Reynolds was already making his name writing for Melody Maker, one of the three major British music magazines of the time (the other two being the New Musical Express and Sounds). His early Melody Maker writings often contained strong criticisms of the concept of "soul" (then being heavily promoted by the NME), and of the somewhat earnest politicisation associated with the Red Wedge movement. He has since stated^{[citation needed]} that his apparent de-politicisation at the time was mainly a result of his sheer despair at Thatcherism and desire to escape - into a parallel world which was, as in the title of his first book, "blissed out". He also wrote a number of articles analysing what has since become known as twee pop from a somewhat sociological perspective, seeing in it a desire to escape the dominant 1980s values of commercialism and Americanisation and to return to a perceived innocent past.

In 1990, Reynolds left Melody Maker (although he would continue to contribute to the magazine until 1996) and went freelance, splitting his time between London and New York. The same year, he published Blissed Out: Raptures of Rock, a collection of his writings from the 1980s. Until his switch to freelance writing, Reynolds had focused mainly on rock, punk rock, post-punk, and pop. But in the early 1990s, he became involved in rave culture and the electronic dance music scene. He began writing about electronic music and became one of the foremost music critics of electronic dance music.

In 1994, Reynolds moved permanently to the East Village in Manhattan. In 1995, he co-authored The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion and Rock'N'Roll with his wife, Joy Press. Sex Revolts is one of the major reasons why Reynolds has gained a reputation for the discussion of gender roles in music; the book is a critical/clinical analysis of the theme of gender in rock.

In 1998, Reynolds published Energy Flash: a Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture in the UK, and became a senior editor at Spin magazine in the US. In 1999, he went back to freelance work and published the American version of Energy Flash in abridged form, titled: Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture. Energy Flash is a comprehensive history of what became rave music, starting with Detroit techno and Chicago house and tracing the evolution of the music back and forth across the Atlantic, all the way up to the late 1990s. Reynolds combines analysis of the music, social background and history, and interviews with big names of the day. One of the most notable aspects of the book is Reynolds' analysis of the role of drugs, particularly ecstasy, in rave culture.

In 2005, the UK version of Rip It Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1978-1984 was published; the American version came out in early 2006. Rip it Up is a history of post-punk, defining the genre and placing it in the context of 1970s and 1980s music.^[1]

Reynolds has continued writing for prominent magazines, as well as his blog, Blissblog.

In 2007, Reynolds published Bring the Noise: 20 Years of Writing about Hip Rock and Hip Hop in the UK, a collection of his writing themed around the relationship between white bohemian rock and black street music. In 2008, an updated edition of Energy Flash was published, with new chapters on the ten years of dance music following the appearance of the first edition.

He contributed a chapter to Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture (The MIT Press, 2008), edited by Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky.

In 2011, Reynolds published Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past, an indictment of and investigation into the current situation of chronic unoriginality in pop.^[2]

Critical theory[link]

Reynolds has become well known for his incorporation of critical theory in his analysis of music. He has written extensively on gender, class, race, and sexuality, and their influence on music. The Sex Revolts discusses gender in rock music. In his study of the relationship between class and music, Reynolds coined the term liminal class, defined as the upper-working class and lower-middle-class. This is a group he credits with "a lot of music energy".^[3]

Reynolds has also written extensively about drug culture and its relationship to and effect on music. In his book, Generation Ecstasy, Reynolds traces the effects of drugs on the ups and downs of the rave scene. His evidence of his interest in the topic can be found in Generation Ecstasy, and in his review^[4] of Trainspotting, among other things.

Reynolds was influenced by philosophers and music theorists, including Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Brian Eno, Joe Carducci and the Situationists.^{[citation needed]} He has on occasion used the Marxist concepts of commodity fetishism and false consciousness to describe attitudes prevalent in hip hop music.^[5]

Books[link]

• Blissed Out: The Raptures of Rock. Serpent's Tail, August 1990, ISBN 1-85242-199-1
• The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion and Rock 'N' Roll . Co-authored with Joy Press. Serpent's Tail, January 1995, ISBN 1-85242-254-8
• Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture (UK title, Pan Macmillan, 1998, ISBN 0-330-35056-0) published in abridged form as Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture (North American title, Routledge, 1999, ISBN 0-415-92373-5)
• Rip It Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1978-1984. Faber and Faber Ltd, April 2005, ISBN 0-571-21569-6 (U.S. Edition: Penguin, February 2006, ISBN 0-14-303672-6)
• Bring The Noise: 20 Years of writing about Hip Rock and Hip-Hop. Faber and Faber Ltd, May 2007, ISBN 978-0-571-23207-9
• Totally Wired: Post-Punk Interviews and Overviews. Faber and Faber Ltd, February 2009, 978-0571235490 (U.S. Edition: Soft Skull Press, September 2010, 1-59376-286-0)
• Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past. Faber and Faber Ltd, June 2011, 978-0571232086

CD[link]

• Rip It Up and Start Again : Post Punk 1978-1984 - CD compiled by Simon Reynolds, 15 May 2006, V2 label

Sources[link]

External links[link]

• Official blog
• Furious.com interview about Rip it Up
• Repellent review and interview of Rip it Up, 2006
• Seattle Weekly interview about Rip it Up
• Generation Ecstasy: Into The World of Techno and Rave Culture: SpaceAgeBachelor interviews Simon Reynolds about Energy Flash
• A New (Rock) Polarity, a 1995 review of The Sex Revolts by Robert Christgau in the New York Times Book Review
• Review of Rip it Up in the New York Times, 2006
• Rip It Up and Start Again blog
• Bring the Noise blog
• Energy Flash blog
• Blissed Out blog
• The Sex Revolts blog
• ReynoldsRetro blog — an archive of Reynolds' writing
• blissout (Reynolds's defunct website, last updated 31 October 2002) - copy at the Internet Archive
• Rock's Back Pages — biography and list of articles by Reynolds
• "Bind and Heal: An Interview with Simon Reynolds", in Oxonian Review, about Retromania, 2011.

Emily Blunt
Emily Blunt at the Toronto International Film Festival (2011)
Born	Emily Olivia Leah Blunt (1983-02-23) 23 February 1983 (age 29) London, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2003–present
Spouse	John Krasinski (2010–present)
Relatives	Crispin Blunt (uncle) Peter Blunt (grandfather)

Emily Olivia Leah Blunt (born 23 February 1983) is an English actress best known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), The Young Victoria (2009), and The Adjustment Bureau (2011). She has been nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, two London Film Critics' Circle Awards, and one BAFTA Award. She won a Golden Globe Award for her work in the BBC television drama Gideon's Daughter (2007).^[1]

Early life[link]

Emily Blunt was born 23 February 1983 in Roehampton, London, England. She is the second of four children born to Joanna, an English teacher and former actress, and barrister Oliver Simon Peter Blunt, QC, one of the highest-profile barristers in the United Kingdom, earning an estimated £1million annually.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Her siblings are Felicity, Sebastian, and Suzanna. Her grandfather was Major-General Peter Blunt and one of her paternal uncles is Crispin Blunt, Conservative Member of Parliament for Reigate.^[7][8]

Blunt attended Ibstock Place School and, at the age of 16, went to Hurtwood House, a private sixth-form college known for its performing arts programme.^{[citation needed]} There, she was discovered by an agent.^{[citation needed]} Blunt made her professional debut in Bliss, a musical written by Paul Sellar, at the 2000 Edinburgh Fringe while she was still an A-level student.^{[citation needed]} She went on to perform at the National Theatre and at Chichester Festival Theatre.^{[citation needed]}

Film career[link]

In 2003, Blunt made her screen debut in the British television drama Boudica, about the life of the ancient Celtic warrior-queen who fought the Romans. That same year, she was praised for her performance as the 16th century queen Catherine Howard in the two-part British television drama Henry VIII.

In 2004, Blunt delivered her breakout performance as Tamsin in the dark British film, My Summer of Love, a story of deception and lesbian love in the English countryside. She shared an Evening Standard British Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer with co-star Natalie Press.

In 2005, Blunt co-starred with Bill Nighy and Miranda Richardson in the British television drama Gideon's Daughter, an original screenplay written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff, in which she played the troubled only child of New Labour spin doctor Gideon Warner, played by Nighy. Blunt won a Golden Globe for her performance.

Blunt at the British Academy Film Awards in February 2007

In 2006, Blunt appeared opposite Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway in the box-office success The Devil Wears Prada. Streep and Hathaway received most of the critical attention initially, but Blunt proved to be equally memorable, with Entertainment Weekly naming her the Best Female Scene-Stealer in their end-of-summer special issue. She appeared at the 79th Academy Awards where she co-presented the award for best costume design with her Prada co-star Hathaway. Blunt spoke about the weight loss, claiming she had to go "painfully thin".^[9] That same year, Blunt co-starred with Susan Sarandon in the independent drama Irresistible. Following production, Sarandon strongly suggested to director David Auburn that he cast Blunt in his next film, The Girl in the Park— a role she did not accept.

In 2007, Blunt appeared in four films: Wind Chill, The Jane Austen Book Club, Dan in Real Life, and Charlie Wilson's War. In 2008, Blunt appeared in two films, Sunshine Cleaning in the role of Norah Lorkowski, and The Great Buck Howard as Valerie Brennan.

In 2009, Blunt played Queen Victoria in The Young Victoria, directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and written by Julian Fellowes. She also starred in the Toby Spanton-directed short film Curiosity. She was director Jon Favreau's first choice to play the Black Widow in Iron Man 2 but scheduling conflicts with Gulliver's Travels forced her to cede the role to Scarlett Johansson.^[10] She voiced Angelina's mother, Matilda Mouseling, in the television series, Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps.

In 2010, Blunt co-starred with Benicio del Toro and Anthony Hopkins in the big-budget movie The Wolfman, which was released on 12 February. She also starred in Gulliver's Travels and in The Adjustment Bureau, alongside Matt Damon, as a ballet dancer "being mysteriously kept apart" from Damon's character.^[11][12] Blunt was offered the female lead in the Captain America: The First Avenger film but turned it down.^[13]

In January 2011, Blunt began filming an American science-fiction film Looper, directed by Rian Johnson and co-starring Bruce Willis. She appeared in the British comedy film Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, directed by Lasse Hallström and co-starring Ewan McGregor and Kristin Scott Thomas.^[14] She briefly appeared in The Muppets as Miss Piggy's receptionist. She also starred in the 2012 film The Five-Year Engagement, directed by Nicholas Stoller and co-starring Jason Segel. She is scheduled to star in Arthur Newman, Golf Pro with Colin Firth in 2012.^[15]

Personal life[link]

Blunt had a three-year relationship with Canadian singer Michael Bublé. They met in Melbourne backstage at the Australian television Logie Awards in 2005 and later shared a home in Vancouver, Canada. They broke up in 2008.^[16]

In November 2008, Blunt began dating American actor John Krasinski. On 10 July 2010, they married in Como, Italy.^[17]

Her sister Felicity, who works as a literary agent, became engaged to actor Stanley Tucci in 2011 after the pair were introduced by Emily.^[18] Her brother Sebastian is an actor.^[19]

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Emily Blunt

• Emily Blunt at the Internet Movie Database
• Emily Blunt Interview: Blunt Force Los Angeles Times Magazine
• Emily Blunt Video Interview Los Angeles Times Magazine

This article's introduction section may not adequately summarize its contents. To comply with Wikipedia's lead section guidelines, please consider modifying the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points in such a way that it can stand on its own as a concise version of the article. (discuss). (March 2012)

John Carpenter
Carpenter in 2010
Born	(1948-01-16) January 16, 1948 (age 64) Carthage, New York, United States
Residence	Los Angeles, California
Nationality	American
Education	Western Kentucky University
Alma mater	University of Southern California
Occupation	director, screenwriter, producer, composer
Years active	1962 – present
Style	Horror, Science fiction
Influenced by	Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Stanley Kubrick, Vincent Price, Nigel Kneale, Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Orson Welles, Howard Hawks, Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leone, H.P. Lovecraft
Influenced	Tim Burton, Christopher Nolan, Sam Raimi, Nicolas Winding Refn, Christophe Gans
Home town	Bowling Green, Kentucky
Spouse	Adrienne Barbeau (1979–1984) Sandy King (1990–present)

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

Early life[link]

Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York, the son of Milton Jean (née Carter) and Howard Ralph Carpenter, a music professor.^[1] He and his family moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1953.^[2] He was captivated by movies from an early age, particularly the westerns of Howard Hawks and John Ford, as well as 1950s low budget horror films, such as The Thing from Another World and high budget science fiction like Forbidden Planet ^[3] and began filming horror shorts on 8 mm film even before entering high school.^[4] He attended Western Kentucky University where his father chaired the music department, then transferred to the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts in 1968, but later dropped out to make his first feature.^[5]

Career[link]

Student Films and Academy Award[link]

In a beginning film course at USC Cinema in 1969, Carpenter wrote and directed an 8-minute short film, Captain Voyeur. The film was rediscovered in the USC archives in 2011 and proved interesting because it revealed elements that would appear in his later film, Halloween (1978).^[6]

The following year he collaborated with producer John Longenecker as co-writer, film editor and music composer for The Resurrection of Broncho Billy (1970), which won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. The short film was blown-up to 35mm, sixty prints were made, and the film was theatrically released by Universal Studios for two years in the United States and Canada.

1970s: From student films to major theatrical releases[link]

His first major film as director, Dark Star (1974), was a science fiction black comedy that he cowrote with Dan O'Bannon (who later went on to write Alien, borrowing freely from much of Dark Star). The film reportedly cost only $60,000 and was difficult to make as both Carpenter and O'Bannon completed the film by multitasking, with Carpenter doing the musical score as well as the writing, producing and directing, while O'Bannon acted in the film and did the special effects (which caught the attention of George Lucas who hired him to do work on the special effects for Star Wars). Carpenter's efforts did not go unnoticed as much of Hollywood marveled at his filmmaking abilities within the confines of a shoestring budget.^[7]

Carpenter's next film was Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), a low-budget thriller influenced by the films of Howard Hawks, particularly Rio Bravo. As with Dark Star, Carpenter was responsible for many aspects of the film's creation. He not only wrote, directed and scored it, but also edited the film under the pseudonym "John T. Chance" (the name of John Wayne's character in Rio Bravo). Carpenter has said that he considers Assault on Precinct 13 to have been his first real film because it was the first movie that he shot on a schedule.^[8] The film was also significant because it marked the first time Carpenter worked with Debra Hill, who played prominently in the making of some of Carpenter's most important films.

Working within the limitations of a $100,000 budget,^[9] Carpenter assembled a main cast that consisted of experienced but relatively obscure actors. The two leads were Austin Stoker, who had appeared previously in science fiction, disaster and blaxploitation films, and Darwin Joston, who had worked primarily in television and had once been Carpenter's next-door neighbor.^[10]

The film was originally released in the United States to mixed critical reviews and lackluster box-office earnings, but after it was screened at the 1977 London Film Festival, it became a critical and commercial success in Europe and is often credited with launching Carpenter's career. The film subsequently received a critical reassessment in the United States, where it is now generally regarded as one of the best exploitation films of the 1970s.^{[citation needed]}

Carpenter both wrote and directed the Lauren Hutton thriller Someone's Watching Me! (aka High Rise) in 1978.^[11] This TV movie is the tale of a single, working woman who, shortly after arriving in L.A., discovers that she is being stalked. Borrowing heavily from Alfred Hitchcock, Carpenter slowly builds the suspense and intrigue before the final confrontation.

Halloween (1978) was a smash hit on release and helped give birth to the slasher film genre. Originally an idea suggested by producer Irwin Yablans (titled The Babysitter Murders), who envisioned a film about babysitters being menaced by a stalker, Carpenter took the idea and another suggestion from Yablans that it take place during Halloween and developed a story.^[12] Carpenter said of the basic concept: "Halloween night. It has never been the theme in a film. My idea was to do an old haunted house movie."^[13] The film was written by Carpenter and Debra Hill with Carpenter admitting that the music, not the film, was inspired by both Dario Argento's Suspiria and William Friedkin's The Exorcist.

Carpenter again worked with a relatively small budget, $320,000.^[14] The film grossed over $65 million initially, making it one of the most successful independent films of all time.^[15]

Carpenter relied upon taut suspense rather than the excessive gore that would define later slasher films in order to make the menacing nature of the main character, Michael Myers, more palpable. At times, Carpenter has described Halloween in terms that appeared to directly contradict the more thoughtful, nuanced approach to horror that he actually used, such as: "True crass exploitation. I decided to make a film I would love to have seen as a kid, full of cheap tricks like a haunted house at a fair where you walk down the corridor and things jump out at you."^[16] The film has often been cited as an allegory on the virtue of sexual purity and the danger of casual sex, although Carpenter has explained that this was not his intent: "It has been suggested that I was making some kind of moral statement. Believe me, I'm not. In Halloween, I viewed the characters as simply normal teenagers."^[17] Of the later slasher films that largely mimicked Carpenter's work on Halloween, few have met with the same critical success.

In addition to the film's critical and commercial success, Carpenter's self-composed "Halloween Theme" remains a recognizable film music theme to this day.^[18]

In 1979, John Carpenter began what was to be the first of several collaborations with actor Kurt Russell when he directed the TV movie Elvis. The made-for-TV movie was a smash hit with viewers and critics, and was also released as a feature film in cinemas outside the U. S. and revived the career of Russell, who was a child actor in the 1960s.

1980s: Continued commercial success[link]

Carpenter followed up the success of Halloween with The Fog (1980), a ghostly revenge tale (co-written by Hill) inspired by horror comics such as Tales from the Crypt^[19] and by The Crawling Eye, a 1958 movie about monsters hiding in clouds.^[20]

Completing The Fog was an unusually difficult process for Carpenter. After viewing a rough cut of the film, he was dissatisfied with the result. For the only time in his filmmaking career, he had to devise a way to salvage a nearly finished film that did not meet his standards. In order to make the movie more coherent and frightening, Carpenter shot additional footage that included a number of new scenes. Approximately one-third of the finished film is the newer footage.

Despite production problems and mostly negative critical reception, The Fog was another commercial success for Carpenter. The film was made on a budget of $1,000,000, but it grossed over $21,000,000 in the United States alone.^[21] Carpenter has said that The Fog is not his favorite film, although he considers it a "minor horror classic".^[20]

Carpenter immediately followed The Fog with the science-fiction adventure Escape from New York (1981), which quickly picked up large cult and mainstream audiences as well as critical acclaim.

His next film, The Thing (1982), is notable for its high production values, including innovative special effects by Rob Bottin, special visual effects by matte artist Albert Whitlock, a score by Ennio Morricone and a cast including rising star Kurt Russell and respected character actors such as Wilford Brimley, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Keith David, and Richard Masur. The Thing was made with a budget of $15,000,000,^[22] Carpenter's largest up to that point, and distributed by Universal Pictures.

Carpenter's film used the same source material as the 1951 Howard Hawks film, The Thing from Another World, Carpenter's version is more faithful to the John W. Campbell, Jr. novella, Who Goes There?, upon which both films were based. Moreover, unlike the Hawks film, The Thing was part of what Carpenter later called his "Apocalypse Trilogy," a trio of films (The Thing, Prince of Darkness, and In the Mouth of Madness) with bleak endings for the film's characters, and being a graphic, sinister horror film,^[23] it did not appeal to audiences in the summer of 1982, especially when E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which would have illustrated a much more light-hearted picture of alien visitation, was released two weeks prior. In an interview, Carpenter stated that E.T.'s release could have been largely responsible for the film's disappointment.^{[24][25][26][27]} As The Thing did not perform well on a commercial level, it was Carpenter's first financial disappointment. Later, the movie found new life in the home video and cable markets, and it is now widely regarded as one of the best horror films ever made.^{[citation needed]}

Shortly after completing post-production on The Thing, Universal offered him the chance to direct Firestarter, based on the novel by Stephen King. Carpenter hired Bill Lancaster to adapt the novel into a script, which was completed in mid-1982. Carpenter had ear-marked Burt Lancaster to star as "Rainbird" and 12-year-old Jennifer Connelly as "Charly" but when The Thing was a box-office disappointment, Universal replaced Carpenter with Mark L Lester. Ironically, Carpenter's next film, Christine, was the 1983 adaptation of the Stephen King novel of the same name. The story revolves around a high-school nerd named Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) who buys a junked 1958 Plymouth Fury which turns out to have supernatural powers. As Cunningham restores and rebuilds the car, he becomes unnaturally obsessed with it, with deadly consequences. Christine did respectable business upon its release and was received well by critics; however, Carpenter has been quoted as saying he directed the film because it was the only thing offered to him at the time.^[28]

One of the high points in Carpenter's career came in 1984 with the release of Starman, a film that was critically praised but was only a moderate commercial success.^[29] Produced by Michael Douglas, the script was well received by Columbia Pictures, which chose it over the script for E.T. and prompted Steven Spielberg to go to Universal Pictures. Douglas chose Carpenter to be the director because of his reputation as an action director who could also convey strong emotion.^[30] Starman was favorably reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and LA Weekly and described by Carpenter as a film he envisioned as a romantic comedy similar to It Happened One Night only with a space alien.^[31][32] The film received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Jeff Bridges' portrayal of Starman and received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Musical Score for Jack Nitzsche.

After seeing footage of Starman, the executive producer of the Superman movie series, Ilya Salkind, offered Carpenter the chance to direct the latest Alexander–Ilya Salkind fantasy epic Santa Claus: The Movie. Salkind made the offer to Carpenter over lunch at The Ritz, and while he loved the idea of breaking from his normal traditions and directing a children's fantasy movie, he requested 24 hours to think over the offer. The next day he had drawn up a list of requirements should he direct the movie; they were: 100 percent creative control, the right to take over scriptwriting duties, being able to co-compose the movie's musical score, total editorial control, the casting of Brian Dennehey as Santa Claus and a $5 million signing-on fee (the same amount that the movie's star Dudley Moore was receiving). Team Salkind were nonplussed by his demands and withdrew their offer for him to direct. Carpenter told Empire magazine ten years later that he wished he'd been less demanding and made the movie because he liked the idea so much and it would have changed critics' views on his limitations as a director.

Following the box office failure of his big-budget action–comedy Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Carpenter struggled to get films financed. He returned to making lower budget films such as Prince of Darkness (1987), a film influenced by the BBC series Quatermass. Although some of the films from this time, such as They Live (1988) did pick up a considerable cult audience, he never again realized his mass-market potential.

Carpenter was also offered The Exorcist III in 1989, and met with writer William Peter Blatty (who also authored the novel on which it was based, Legion) over the course of a week. However, the two filmmakers clashed on the film's climax and Carpenter passed on the project. Blatty directed the film himself a year later. Carpenter is quoted as saying that although they fought over the ending, they held a mutual respect for one another and talked endlessly about an interest they both shared: quantum physics.^[33]

In an interview with Empire, Carpenter stated that he was offered Top Gun and Fatal Attraction. He declined Top Gun because he did not like the dialogue and felt it was just a second unit directed film. With Fatal Attraction he disliked the script.^{[volume & issue needed]}

1990s: Critical and commercial decline[link]

His 1990s career is characterized by a number of notable misfires: Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992), Village of the Damned (1995) and Escape From L.A. (1996) are examples of films that were critical and box office failures. Also notable from this decade are In the Mouth of Madness (1994), yet another Lovecraftian homage, which did not do well either at the box-office or with critics^[34] and Vampires (1998) starred James Woods as the leader of a band of vampire hunters in league with the Catholic Church.

2000s: Semi-retirement[link]

2001 saw the release of Ghosts of Mars. 2005 saw remakes of Assault on Precinct 13 and The Fog, the latter being produced by Carpenter himself, though in an interview he defined his involvement as, "I come in and say hello to everybody. Go home."^[35]

In 2007 Rob Zombie produced and directed Halloween, a re-imagining of Carpenter's 1978 film that spawned a sequel two years later.

Carpenter returned to the director's chair in 2005 for an episode of Showtime's Masters of Horror series as one of the thirteen filmmakers involved in the first season. His episode, Cigarette Burns, aired to generally positive reviews, and positive reactions from Carpenter fans, many of whom regard it as on par with his earlier horror classics. He has since contributed another original episode for the show's second season entitled "Pro-Life", about a young girl who is raped and impregnated by a demon and wants to have an abortion, but whose efforts are halted by her religious fanatic, gun-toting father and her three brothers.

In February 2009, It was announced that Carpenter had planned for his newest project, called The Ward, starring Amber Heard.

2010s: Present[link]

The Ward was his first movie since 2001's Ghosts of Mars, and it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 13, 2010. Carpenter narrated the video game F.E.A.R. 3.^[36] On 10 October 2010 Carpenter received the Lifetime Award from the Freak Show Horror Film Festival.^[37]

In 2011 at the Fright Night Film Festival Carpenter revealed that he is currently working on what he described as a "gothic western" movie and hopes to get it off the ground soon. He went on to say that he is unsure of the film's fate as it is harder to sell westerns these days.

Techniques[link]

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 an outspoken proponent of widescreen filming, and all of his theatrical movies (with the exception of Dark Star and The Ward) were filmed anamorphic with a 2.35:1 or greater aspect ratio. The Ward was shot flat and scanned for anamorphic 2.35:1.

Legacy[link]

Many of Carpenter's films have been re-released on DVD as special editions with numerous bonus features. Examples of such are: the collector's editions of Halloween, Escape From New York, Christine, The Thing, Assault on Precinct 13, Big Trouble In Little China and The Fog. Some were re-issued with a new anamorphic widescreen transfer. In the UK, several of Carpenter's films have been released on DVD with audio commentary by Carpenter and his stars (They Live, with actor/wrestler Roddy Piper, Starman with actor Jeff Bridges and Prince of Darkness with actor Peter Jason) that have not been released in the United States.

Carpenter has been the subject of the documentary film John Carpenter: The Man and His Movies, and American Cinematheque's 2002 retrospective of his films. Moreover, in 2006, the United States Library of Congress deemed Halloween to be "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.^[38]

In 2010, writer and actor Mark Gatiss interviewed Carpenter about his career and films for his BBC documentary series A History of Horror. Carpenter appears in all three episodes of the series.^[39]

Personal life[link]

Carpenter met his future wife, actress Adrienne Barbeau, on the set of his 1978 television movie, Someone's Watching Me. Carpenter was married to Barbeau from January 1, 1979 to 1984. During their marriage, Barbeau starred in The Fog, and also appeared in Escape from New York.^[40] The couple had one son, John Cody Carpenter (born May 7, 1984).^[41]

Carpenter has been married to producer Sandy King since 1990. King produced a number of Carpenter's later feature films, including They Live, In the Mouth of Madness, Ghosts of Mars, and Escape from L.A. She also functioned as script supervisor for some of these films as well, such as Starman, Big Trouble in Little China and Prince of Darkness.^[42]

He appeared in an episode of Animal Planet's Animal Icons titled "It Came from Japan" where he discussed his love and admiration for the original Godzilla film.

Carpenter is also a known supporter of video games as a media and art form and has a particular liking for the F.E.A.R. franchise in general, even going as far as offering himself as a spokesman and helping direct F3AR cutscenes.^[43]

Filmography[link]

See John Carpenter filmography

Further reading[link]

	Biography portal
	Film portal
	Horror portal

• Conrich, Ian & Woods, David. The Cinema of John Carpenter: The Technique of Terror (Directors' Cuts), Wallflower Press (2004). ISBN 1-904764-14-2.
• Muir, John Kenneth. The Films of John Carpenter, McFarland & Company, Inc. (2005). ISBN 0-7864-2269-6.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• John Carpenter at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with The Onion A.V. Club
• Entertainment Weekly interview
• Time Out New York interview
• DGA magazine interview
• Writers Guild of America interview

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