John Carpenter Would 'Love To Make A Little Horror Film' Again

I've made peace with the idea of John Carpenter never making a new movie again. While I'd love for it to happen, I also know that Carpenter has several legendary films to his name already. I'm also aware that the horror filmmaker is perfectly content these days to make music or sit around cashing residual checks, and who can blame him?

But every now and then, Carpenter teases the idea of returning to movie making. As he did recently, while in Cannes receiving the French Directors' Guild's Carrosse d'Or Award for creative achievement in filmmaking. According to Carpenter, he's down to make a "little horror film" or a "big adventure film" – if the budget is right.

Will John Carpenter ever make a new movie again? Last year, the Halloween filmmaker said, "I would love to direct something, if it's the right thing to do at my age." Now, Carpenter is at it again. In a new interview with Collider while in Cannes, Carpenter stated: "I don't have [a new movie] scheduled but I'm working on things. I made a lot of movies and I got burned out and I had to stop for a while. I have to have a life."

Carpenter stating he's "working on things" is vague enough that it could mean anything. He could perhaps be talking about his musical career. Or maybe he's busy at home building a birdhouse – who knows. But what would it take for Carpenter to make a new movie again? Here's what he had to say:

"Circumstance would have to be correct for me to do it again. I'd love to make a little horror film that would be great or a big adventure film. It would be a project that I like that's budgeted correctly. Nowadays they make these young directors do movie for $2 million when the movie is written for $10 million. So you have to squeeze it all in there and I don't want to do that any more."

It sounds like every detail would have to be just right to get Carpenter behind the camera again. But will that even happen? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say no, but I'd be thrilled if it did. Carpenter also added he'd be up for doing a TV series, and he responded in the affirmative. The director teased a potential Prince of Darkness TV series for Shudder last year, but we've heard nothing about that since.

My guess is that if Carpenter does ever direct again, it will be in TV form. Maybe if Shudder's Creepshow TV series gets a second season, the horror icon can be convinced to direct an episode. I'll take what I can get here, Mr. Carpenter.