Movies
John Carpenter Wrote a Script for ‘Judgment Night’
Director Stephen Hopkins dropped this fun little nugget at the Q+A following the 25th-anniversary screening of his Judgment Night at the ongoing Cinepocalypse film festival here in Chicago. According to the filmmaker, the producers had wanted to create a film in the spirit of The Warriors and had commisioned several screenplays. One of the writers: John Carpenter. No word on what it was about, but it’s interesting to think what would have happened if they moved forward with a Carpenter-penned version of Judgment Night.
The 1993 masterpiece, about four friends who get lost in the streets of Chicago on their way to a boxing match, boasted one of cinemas best ensembles: Emilio Estevez, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jeremy Piven, and Stephen Dorff, with Denis Leary making his feature debut as the film’s antagonist.
ALSO READ: Kevin Spacey and John Travolta Could Have Starred in Judgment Night
“I’d done Predator 2 with Larry Gordon and Joel Silver, who were partners at the time; shortly afterward, they had a very bitter split. Larry Gordon started his own production company called Largo [Entertainment], and I think [Judgment Night] was the first film to come out of that,” Hopkins told the audience at the Q+A.
“They’d actually been wanting to make this film for a long time, and there were all sorts of scripts, from people like John Carpenter and Gary Cunningham – different versions that involved bikers in the desert of LA, and things like that. I was given a lot of scripts, and it was quite a long process. We wanted to work hard to get it right, and not make it about something that wasn’t just about rape – a lot of these urban stories are about that.
“There were months and months of script meetings – there were rooftop motorcycle chases, but we ended up in a grittier vibe. It was interesting for me, because I’d only just made sci-fi movies at that point; I wanted to try something more realistic.” (Thanks to CoS for the transcription.)
Unfortunately, Judgment Night would bomb at the box office after being pulled from theaters following a widely publicized shooting. 25 years later, we can appreciate the classic it has become.
JUDGMENT NIGHT, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jeremy Piven, Emilio Estevez, Stephen Dorff, 1993, (c)Universal
Ryan Gosling (Project Hail Mary) has made no secret of the fact that he’d love to play Ghost Rider in a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, and it’s now officially happening.
Announced by Marvel out of San Diego Comic-Con tonight, Ryan Gosling will play the iconic Marvel character in a Ghost Rider movie being directed by Shawn Levy!
Expect Ryan Gosling to play Ghost Rider on the big screen in 2028.
Johnny Blaze is of course the most iconic and well-known Ghost Rider, selling his soul to Satan and becoming a supernatural badass. Nicolas Cage brought Blaze to life on screen in both 2007’s Ghost Rider and 2011’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, while Gabriel Luna more recently played the Robbie Reyes version of Ghost Rider in the series “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
Luna was set to star in his own Ghost Rider spinoff series in the wake of that small screen appearance, but that Hulu project ended up being squashed before it ever had a chance.
Fans have been waiting for Ghost Rider to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe for many years now, with Ryan Gosling making it clear that he’d love to bring the character back to life.
That Hollywood dream is coming true. Stay tuned for more as we learn it.
You must be logged in to post a comment.