There was arguably no bigger genre director in the ’80s than John Carpenter, thanks to projects like The Thing, Escape from New York, Big Trouble in Little China, and They Live. Even though his filmography in that decade alone is more than impressive enough to cement his legacy as one of the greatest horror filmmakers of all time, we still can’t help holding out hope that he could return to the director’s chair for a feature-length movie. His last effort, The Ward, was released in 2010, and since that movie’s release, he’s directed a music video for his Christine theme and also an episode of John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams on Peacock.
For the better part of the last two decades, Carpenter has instead been focusing on his music, releasing multiple original albums and touring the world with Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, along with creating original scores for movies like David Gordon Green‘s Halloween trilogy and the Firestarter reboot. During a recent conversation with Metal Hammer, Carpenter confirmed he was open to collaborating with another major force from the ’80s, Metallica, so long as they asked him to.
“We all loved it when it came out,” Carpenter confessed, noting that it was his kids that introduced him to them in 1991. “That album [Metallica’s self-titled album, AKA The Black Album] is just fantastic. And they are, right? … They were just this huge band, but I loved that album for introducing me to them. I’ve never actually seen them live.”
Despite never having seen them live, the filmmaker noted, “I’d totally direct a music video for Metallica if they asked, though.”
He also joked that he was impressed with the heavy metal act’s tenure, appreciating that they are “still alive and still here” after such a career, “Like me!”
Even though the filmmaker is willing to collaborate with Metallica and his synth-driven soundtracks being an inspiration to multiple generations of genre fans and music lovers, he doesn’t have that many collaborations to his name at this time. Back in 2021, though, he partnered with the synth-pop band CHVRCHES to remix their song “Good Girls” while they offered a remix of his track “Turning the Bones.”
Metallica might not be the cultural juggernaut they were in the ’80s and ’90s, but Carpenter noted the band “may be a bit less transcendent and popular than it was … it still speaks to people like it spoke to me all those years ago.”
He added, “Music as an art form is probably the greatest thing that humanity ever created. It transcends language, going from country to country, across the world. Someone in Bangladesh can hear an American song and still love it.”
Carpenter’s most recent release, Cathedral, is both a graphic novel and a companion album that serves as the soundtrack to the narrative.
Would you like Carpenter to direct a Metallica music video? What song would you pick? Let us know down in the comments!