Movies
John Carpenter Alludes to Alleged ‘Dead Space’ Film Adaptation, But Isn’t Involved
We’ve reported on John Carpenter and his desire to do a film adaptation of Dead Space a couple of times already. And to stoke the rumour mill even more, Carpenter’s comments in a recent interview with Variety seem to point to the project’s existence. Just not with him.
On the occasion of the horror legend’s 75th birthday, Carpenter recently spoke with Variety on a variety of topics. One such topic revolved around the question of whether Carpenter would return to the director’s chair. Carpenter mused the question, saying that if the project was “honestly budgeted” and that the people heading the project allow for the basketball season and the playoffs, he’d be open to it.
The topic then turned to John Carpenter’s past comments about directing a Dead Space adaptation, to which Carpenter appeared to walk back. “I’m a big video game fan, so I played all the games. I was down looking at the new digital cameras, the RED, and happened to mention to them that I would love to do a “Dead Space” film. That just went around, and everybody said, “Oh, when are you gonna do it?” I’m not gonna do it.”
However, Carpenter next said that he thought that “they” have another director involved in the project. “And they haven’t asked me to do it. So until someone asks me, I wouldn’t do it.”
Who exactly “they” are wasn’t made clear by Carpenter, as publisher Electronic Arts (who owns the Dead Space property) has dealt with companies like Dreamworks and Warner Bros. for their adaptations. As for a Dead Space movie, this is really the first mention of the project even existing. It might very well be just a case of a studio having a director in mind, but with no actual film in production. And until someone mentions any additional info on this rumoured project, we’ll have to call it that.
Meanwhile, Motive Studios’ upcoming Dead Space remake is due out January 27th for PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series.
Universal has been having a hell of a time getting their Universal Monsters brand back on a better path in the wake of the Dark Universe collapsing, with four movies thus far released in the years since The Mummy attempted to get that interconnected universe off the ground.
First was Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, to date the only post-Mummy hit for the Universal Monsters, followed by The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Renfield, and now Abigail. The latter three films have attempted to bring Dracula back to the screen in fresh ways, but both Demeter and Renfield severely underperformed at the box office. And while Abigail is a far better vampire movie than those two, it’s unfortunately also struggling to turn a profit.
Where does the Universal Monsters brand go from here? The good news is that Universal and Blumhouse have once again enlisted the help of Leigh Whannell for their upcoming Wolf Man reboot, which is howling its way into theaters in January 2025. This is good news, of course, because Whannell’s Invisible Man was the best – and certainly most profitable – of the post-Dark Universe movies that Universal has been able to conjure up. The film ended its worldwide run with $144 million back in 2020, a massive win considering the $7 million budget.
Given the film was such a success, you may wondering why The Invisible Man 2 hasn’t come along in these past four years. But the wait for that sequel may be coming to an end.
Speaking with the Happy Sad Confused podcast this week, The Invisible Man star Elisabeth Moss notes that she feels “very good” about the sequel’s development at this point in time.
“Blumhouse and my production company [Love & Squalor Pictures]… we are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” Moss updates this week. “And I feel very good about it.”
She adds, “We are very much intent on continuing that story.”
At the end of the 2020 movie, Elisabeth Moss’s heroine Cecilia Kass uses her stalker’s high-tech invisibility suit to kill him, now in possession of the technology that ruined her life.
Stay tuned for more on The Invisible Man 2 as we learn it.
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