It’s been seven years – seven long years – since John Carpenter, one of the true greats of American cinema, last directed a movie. Well, it’s about bloody time that he got back behind the megaphone, and so it’s with delight that we can report that Carpenter is in final negotiations to direct Nicolas Cage in a thriller called Scared Straight.
Cage would star as a life prisoner who is forced into action when a riot breaks out in his prison, and a young inmate – sent to jail as part of the Scared Straight program which temporarily imprisons juvenile delinquents in order to put the willies right up ’em – is taken hostage.
Although there are no supernatural elements that we know of, this seems to be right up Carpenter’s street. The man has admitted that he’s been remaking Rio Bravo for years now (Assault On Precinct 13, The Fog, The Thing, Prince Of Darkness, and even the film which seemed like it may be his last, Ghosts Of Mars, all owe some debt to the Howard Hawks classic), and this seems like a nice little twist on your typical siege movie.
We’re also excited about the combo of Carpenter and Cage. Kurt Russell aside, Carpenter hasn’t worked with an A-list actor before, and it’ll be fascinating to see how he handles Cage and his penchant for quirks.
There’s no word yet on any other casting, but with an October start date planned for a project that has been knocking around for a couple of years now (Rob Cohen was once attached to direct; he’ll now merely executive produce), things will be moving pretty fast on a movie that we hope will see a return to form for Carpenter.