During a career that has spanned over 40 years, John Carpenter has worked on projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage. Some of the films were produced after he left production.

1970s Blood River

In 1971, when he was a young screenwriter, Carpenter wrote the original Western spec script Blood River, which he wanted to direct. He had it sent to John Wayne's company, intending that the actor star, but received no feedback. "I'd love to have had [Howard] Hawks direct it but Hawks was too old," said Carpenter. "I would love to have directed it, but I don't think they would have let me." According to Carpenter biographer Gilles Boulenger, Blood River was "written expressly for the first screen teaming of 'The Duke', John Wayne, and 'The King', Elvis Presley." Two decades later, his script was used for a made-for-television film directed by Mel Damski.

They Bite In 1975, after collaborating on the script of Dark Star, Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon had plans to co-write They Bite, later to be titled Drone. This was another sci-fi film which would have again seen Carpenter as director and O'Bannon as production designer. The basic concept followed ferocious insects that can imitate anything; Carpenter later conceded, "It was patently ripped off from John W. Campbell's story Who Goes There." He explained back in a 1980 interview for Cinefantastique what came of the project: "There came a point in our relationship when we decided not to continue working together. So he took over the project; that was what he was going to do next. I had developed the story with him, but he wrote the script. He took it around and got an option on it. The last thing I remember about the project, they sent me a letter, which I had to sign, saying I had no interest in the script." O'Bannon went on to repurpose ideas from They Bite into the script he wrote for Alien. Despite this, he still sought to publish They Bite as a novel.

Prey Around 1975–76, a script entitled Prey was co-written by Carpenter with his fellow USC alumni James P. Nichols, for Warner Bros. Pictures. It centered on three teenage girls who set out to climb Mount Tobias but are attacked by two mountain men who seek to torture and kill them. Carpenter was a fan of Black Christmas, and requested Warners hire that film's director, Bob Clark, for Prey. Clark claimed the project did not proceed due to casting problems.

Eyes

Also in 1975, Carpenter wrote an original screenplay called Eyes, which later became Eyes of Laura Mars, directed by Irvin Kershner. At the beginning however, the script was picked up by Columbia producer Jon Peters, who hired Carpenter to rewrite it and potentially direct it as a star vehicle for Barbra Streisand. The producer then wanted to change the "style" of the story and Carpenter refused to oblige, so it was rewritten against his wishes. Carpenter later suggested that They Live represented "what I originally wanted to do with my script Eyes."

Meltdown In an interview with Carpenter, he said: "Well, here's the story. Back in 1977 I was a writer, and took an assignment called the Prometheus Crisis, about a nuclear plant meltdown. It's kind of Halloween in a nuclear power plant. It's been 20 years since they were trying to set it up – and at one point it was supposed to go with Dolph Lundgren. But I haven't heard anything about it. I don't have any attachment to it anymore, but we'll see what happens with it." After several attempts, the project was about to start filming in June 1994 under the helm of director John Dahl with Dolph Lundgren in the lead role, but the production was shut down because of legal disputes regarding the US distribution rights claimed by several companies. Another attempt was announced in 1997 with actor Casper Van Dien but the ill-fated project still remains unproduced.

The Stars, My Destination Since the 1970s, Carpenter has cited as his dream project a film adaptation of Alfred Bester's classic sci-fi novel The Stars, My Destination, about a rogue psychic seeking revenge in a future world where teleportation has changed everything. In a 1978 interview for Sight and Sound, Carpenter said "it would cost millions and millions of dollars, I'll never be able to do it." When asked during another interview two years later "What would a man like John Carpenter do with his imagination and talent if he was given $30 million?" he answered, "Well, I'll tell what I would do with $30 million. I would do a book called The Stars, My Destination by Alfred Bester. I would make that as the greatest science fiction novel-to-movie of all time." In 1985, the film came close to getting made, but Carpenter cautiously backed away from a screenplay by Lorenzo Semple Jr., commissioned by producer Jack Schwartzman. That year, Carpenter said the following: "Stars would have been a giant special-effects movie, requiring a huge time commitment on my part. It wouldn't have been an intimate film, and I was longing to do a picture with people in it. Schwartzman wanted to make it The Count of Monte Cristo in outer space. He had some ideas about how to do it cheaply, by making the world of the future look like the world of today. I thought that would destroy the book. We also couldn't hash out the ending. I liked the book's ending, but they wanted to change it." Carpenter later confirmed that there was indeed a script written but "it wasn't very good, so it never happened." He stopped persevering with the film after concluding that "it couldn't be done. I realized, you know what, it's a novel. That's what makes it work," and deemed some sequences of it "unfilmable". When asked in 2022 if there was a story he always wanted to adapt that he'd never gotten to, Carpenter singled out The Stars, My Destination.

A Descent Into the Maelstrom In a 1978 interview for Sight and Sound, Carpenter said that he would love to adapt Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 short story "A Descent into the Maelström", stating, "I think it could be a tremendous film. But that's all in the future. I have to establish myself as a writer first, and then explore."

1980s El Diablo

In 1980, after completing The Fog, it was intended that Carpenter's next film would be the "epic" horror-western passion project El Diablo, which he also wrote, for EMI. At this time, he chose to direct The Thing instead, as it was already greenlit. In a 1982 interview, Carpenter's producer Debra Hill mentioned El Diablo as one of their next collaborative projects. Though the projected budget of $20 million turned off most investors, there was brief talk that Dino De Laurentiis might produce it with Kurt Russell in the lead, but the screenplay would ultimately stay dormant until HBO bought it at the end of the decade. El Diablo aired in 1990, with Carpenter and Hill serving as executive producers. "They changed it a great deal," Carpenter said, noting how his Journey to the Center of the Earth-style ending was forced to be scrapped for financial reasons.

Total Recall

Also in 1980, Carpenter expressed enthusiasm about the possibility of directing what he called one of Dan O'Bannon's "most human" scripts, Total Recall. Carpenter described it as "a detective story set in the future, sort of like James Bond." At the time, however, he wasn't optimistic about the film getting made due to its expensive budget. O'Bannon's script was later produced in 1990, following rewrites, and was directed by Paul Verhoeven.

Firestarter

In 1981, during filming of The Thing, Universal Pictures offered him the chance to direct Firestarter, based on the novel by Stephen King. Carpenter respectively hired Bill Lancaster and Bill Phillips to adapt the novel into different versions of the screenplay. Carpenter had intended Richard Dreyfuss as Andy McGee, and Lancaster's father Burt Lancaster as Captain John Hollister, but when The Thing was a financial disappointment, Universal replaced Carpenter with Mark L. Lester, and the script was written by Stanley Mann. In May 2022, Carpenter, his son Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies composed the score for the 2022 remake.

Without a Trace

In 1982, Carpenter was working on the screenplay for the 1984 film The Philadelphia Experiment, entitled Without a Trace, but struggled to complete the third act. In the end, his screenplay was completely rewritten by Wallace C. Bennett, with Carpenter's official credit on the film being an executive producer.

The Ninja In 1983, Irvin Kershner was replaced by Carpenter as director of a planned film adaptation of The Ninja, for Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown for 20th Century Fox. That year, Carpenter co-wrote a brand new script with Tommy Lee Wallace, but it turned out to not be filmable. Unable to produce a workable draft, he left the project a year later. Subsequently, Joe Wizan became the new head of Fox and put The Ninja and other projects that were given the greenlight into turnaround.“THE NINJA” vs. “THE NINJA: The Movie”

Santa Claus: The Movie

In 1984, Carpenter was one of many directors attached to helm Santa Claus: The Movie, intending to cast Brian Dennehy or Wilford Brimley as the titular character. However, Carpenter hated the screenplay and pushed to write his own draft, additionally wanting to compose the film's musical score. The studio was uninterested in Carpenter doing anything besides directing and he eventually left the project over creative differences. Jeannot Szwarc would go on to direct the final project with David Huddleston playing Santa Claus.

Top Gun

Also in 1984, Carpenter was offered a chance to direct Top Gun, but quickly turned it down. He did not see it being much of a success at all and thought that fighting the Soviet Union in the third act would not do any favors for already hostile international relations during the Cold War. Even in recent years, he has noted that there was nothing he could think of that he could have done with that movie; it just was not for him. Tony Scott was eventually chosen to direct the film.

The Golden Child

In 1985, Carpenter was offered the chance to direct The Golden Child, but he preferred the similar script for Big Trouble in Little China, starring Kurt Russell. Michael Ritchie ended up directing the film. "The films have a similar theme in that they both explore Chinese legend and magic, but they develop in different ways," Carpenter said. "Golden Child is a very fine script. It has its problems, but it also has one big plus—Eddie Murphy. It will be hard to pull off that script. But if they do, it could be a wonderful movie!"

Chickenhawk Also in 1985, a film version of the novel was set to be written and directed by Carpenter for New World Pictures, but his script was discarded by studio co-chairman Robert Rehme.

Judgment Night

According to director Stephen Hopkins, Carpenter was called in by the studio to draft a new screenplay for his film, which ultimately was not used.

Armed and Dangerous

In an August 1986 interview, John Candy revealed that Carpenter was initially attached to direct the film Armed and Dangerous, but was eventually replaced by Mark L. Lester. According to Carpenter, the original co-star Dan Aykroyd "wanted a big car chase at the end. I liked the script the way it was. Aykroyd threw a temper tantrum because I wouldn't change it. This is known in the movie business as 'creative differences.' I withdrew from the picture."

Fatal Attraction

Carpenter was offered a chance to direct the 1987 film Fatal Attraction, but he just was not interested in it at all. He has famously mentioned turning this down by saying that he read the script and basically told them that he had already seen this movie when it was called Play Misty for Me, thinking the movie was going to tank at the box office. Adrian Lyne ended up directing the film.

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