There are certain filmmakers who are unquestionable legends. When it comes to the world of horror, no one owns up to that mantle like John Carpenter. The man that brought us “Halloween,” the remake of “The Thing,” “The Fog,” and more has spent more time lately admittedly playing video games than wanting to make films, but it hasn’t stopped him from working in other capacities in the industry. Carpenter returned to compose music for the David Gordon Green “Halloween” trilogy, reminding of his musical chops. Now, he’ll be the executive producer of the upcoming horror anthology series “John Carpenter Presents.”
Carpenter’s work in television has been very limited, mostly some musical composition work and directing a couple episodes of “Masters of Horror.” Here, he’ll be in a producer capacity with a series about unknown terrors affecting a group of people in Alaska. The show aims to use horror as a means of highlight the “hidden fears and social anxieties of our time.” And if there’s one thing the horror genre has routinely done is to use fiction as a way of bringing various fears and concerns to life in a tangible way.
Elevation Pictures will be helming the project with Christina Piovesan of the production company stating, “We’re thrilled to launch into the television space with the master of horror, John Carpenter.” The master will be joined by Michael Amo and Will Pascoe who will serve as writers and showrunners for the series. Amo and Pascoe also will act as producers along with Carpenter’s wife, Sandy King Carpenter. As of the time of this writing there is no release date announced for the series or any casting decisions that have been reported.
We do have a lot of hope for this project though given our love of Carpenter’s work and his credentials. It’s helpful to keep measured expectations though as producer’s involvements in shows don’t always measure success. Take for example the short-lived revival of “The Twilight Zone” that had Jordon Peele as its executive producer. It fizzled out after two seasons and didn’t quite rise up to expectations. But with Carpenter, the guy’s not extremely busy, right? He can put aside his love of Sonic the Hedgehog for a while to work on this show and give us all something to scream for, and at.
