John Carpenter isn’t opposed to other filmmakers swooping in and remaking his greatest hits, that much we know, but when it comes to him actually rewatching the likes of Halloween and Big Trouble in Little China, Carpenter would rather claw his eyes out.
An exaggeration, of course, but during an exhaustive interview with The Guardian, Carpenter, one of cinema’s all-time greats, stressed that he has no intention of revisiting his back catalog, otherwise he’d just pick them apart for all their minor mistakes. It’s very much the view of a perfectionist and sure enough, John Carpenter admitted that once he’s yelled “cut” for the last time, and the final cut is sent to print, he doesn’t want “anything to do with them.”
Per The Guardian:
Oh God, no. Don’t ever make me do that. I don’t want to see them again. I see the mistakes. That’s all I can see. It’d be torture. Are you kidding? I don’t want anything to do with them after I’m done.
In a separate interview with Playboy (with a tip of the hat to ComicBook.com), Carpenter elaborated on his decision, all the while touching base on his upcoming album launch.
The stress is just constant. You work like a coal miner. You don’t feel like an artist. You can’t wait to get done. That’s why I don’t wanna look at ’em anymore. They only cause anxiety. If I sit and look at one of my movies, I’ll think, ‘Why did I do that? Why did I move the camera that way?’ I can’t handle it. And then, you know, rehearsing the actors can be fraught. There are no actors, as Robert Mitchum said. There are only actresses.
Looking further afield, the Halloween of 2018 will serve as a sequel to the original classic, one anchored by the great Jamie Lee Curtis. Judy Greer is also in talks to play Laurie’s daughter (Karen Strode), with David Gordon Green behind the lens. As things stand, it’ll slice and dice its way into theaters on October 19th, 2018.
