Genre: Horror/Action.
Studio:
Unknown (North America); Largo Entertainment (Int'l).
Production Company:
Spoooky Tooth Productions.
Project Phase: In the Can.
Who's In It:
James Woods (Jack Crow); Sheryl Lee (Katrina); Daniel Baldwin (Tony Montoya); Maximillian
Schell (Cardinal Alba); Thomas Ian Griffith (Valek); Tim Guinee (Father Adam Guiteau);
Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa; Mark Boone Jr.; Gregory Sierra; Henry Kingi; Tommy Rosales.
Who's Making It:
John Carpenter (Director); Don Jacoby, John Carpenter (Screenwriters); Sandy King (Producer); Barr
Potter (Executive Producer); Don Jacoby (Co-Producer); Gary B. Kibbe (Director of Photography);
Edward A. Warschilka, Jr. (Editor); Thomas A. Walsh (Production Manager); Kim Hix (Art Director); David
Schlesinger (Set Decorator); Robin Michel Bush (Costume Designer); KNB EFX Group (Special Makeup Effects);
Greg Nicotero, Robert Kurtzman, Howard Berger (Makeup Supervisors); John Carpenter (Musical Score); based upon the John Steakley
novel Vampire$.
Premise: Vampires are real, and Jack Crow is their worst enemy. He leads a Vatican-sponsored team of vampire hunters/killers that travels the globe, searching the places where strange encounters have been reported. The job is a demanding one - Crow is close to burn-out, having seen far too many of his men die at the hands of the Undead...but the stakes have been raised. One of the Old Masters now knows his name, and is hunting Team Crow.
Release Date: October 30, 1998.
Developments:
February, 1996... John Carpenter climbs aboard the project as the film's director. Carpenter seems set to jump-start the, uh, nearly-dead project. Carpenter will re-write Don Jacoby's screenplay and get the $20 million dollar project on the go soon.
Rumors: None.
Scoop Feedback:
February 4, 1997... [Thanks to Pramod Kalapa, 'Butterbaby' and an anonymous friend for providing the Carpenter info.]
May 18, 1997... Sheryl Lee is announced as a cast member last week. Principal photography begins June 2nd in Rome and Canada. A recent ad appeared in Daily Variety annoucing Carpenter's directing/writing job. It showed a silhouette of a group of mean-looking commando types, which prompted 'shape' to say "it looked quite good." [Thanks to Christian, 'widgett', 'theshape', 'brightms', and anonymous.]
May 19, 1997... The lead character's name has been changed from John to Jack Crow. Vampires will also be shooting in Sante Fe, New Mexico. [Scoop submitted by 'theshape".]
June 7, 1997... Daniel Baldwin, Maximillian Schell and Tim Guinee also join the cast. Schell will portray a Vatican Cardinal. Filming starts in Santa Fe this month. Looking to take a peek at the script? Try again - it's being closely guarded. [Scoops sent in by 'widgett', 'Gazza', 'Kilroy', 'theshape' and Herbert W. Sterns.]
Want to learn more about the characters? Then read this scooper's entry - they've read the Steakley book:
"TEAM CROW MEMBERS -
Jack Crow - (James Woods) - Head of the team, but a rather strange casting choice since Jack is supposed to be a huge Arnold / Dolph Lundgren sized character. Very cool ending...
Felix - No one's been cast yet, but from the character type and considering that Capenter is directing...it would be Kurt Russell. He's a nasty, leave-me-alone gunslinger type that Crow recruits into the team when they discover that silver bullets will hurt vampires as well, but none of the current team is a sharpshooter, so they'll need one. For some reason the Vatican already has shipments of silver bullets in great supply..with a reference to having other teams out there in the world hunting other creatures (werewolves.)
Cat - Jack Crow's sidekick to the film and a source of some comic release in the team. Also known as Cherry Cat.
Carl - Your standard funny old fart weapons expert guy.
Davette - Looks like she's cast already - she's the young girl under the control of a vampire that wants to destroy Team Crow. She breaks the control to warn the team and stays with them to get help.
Annabelle - Sort of like an older woman secretary to the team. She makes the travel arrangements and such, avoids the combat (until the vamps come gunning for the team). Basically she's the mother figure to this team of wild children. Much like the mother in Twister...
Father Adam - A warrior priest sent in by the Vatican to join the team after the disaster in the beginning of the book."
All that remains to be seen is if all the book's characters will make the leap to the silver screen. [Character overview sent in by 'Croooow'.]
June 29, 1997... As with all of his films, the title has slightly changed to John Carpenter's Vampires. Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa, Mark Boone Jr.,Gregory Sierra, Henry Kingi and Tommy Rosales join the cast of the film. [Scoop sent in by 'Martian Ambassador'.]
August 5, 1997... Thomas Ian Griffith has joined the cast as Valick, the head vampire. The movie now has a planned-for February, 1998 release date. [Sent in by 'quietbob'; originally appeared on E! magazine.]
August 19, 1997... The film wrapped principal photography on August 4th; Carpenter began post-production the following week on the 11th. [Scoop sent in by 'brightms'.]
Meanwhile, a fellow who claims to have worked on the film ('RezivoirDg') informs us that "some of your information on Vampires is either completely incorrect, or obviously a rumor..." What he doesn't tell us is which parts are correct and which are false...which doesn't really help us out much, does it? [Pat on the back to 'RezivoirDg'.]
October 21, 1997... A February 27, 1998 release date may be in the cards. [Sent to us by 'Violence Jack'.]
March 29, 1998... REP Distribution will be releasing the film across the South Pacific area (Australia, New Zealand) Dark Horizons reports. Still no word on who'll pick up the film domestically, or when. [Thanks to Dark Horizons and Marc Bright.]
April 19, 1998... Want to know what the new trailer for Vampires looks like, but you don't live in Europe? Then thank 'Trask' for this *very* detailed review of it!
"I caught a glimpse of what looked to be a bootleg, overseas trailer for John Carpenter's Vampires today! All I can say is wow!! John Carpenter has REALLY outdone himself here. Of course, that's not TOO hard. The trailer was excellent and I am looking forward to seeing the film! I found the trailer on www.petesmoviepage.com:
May 24, 1998... Marc Bright's The Raw News web page, which follows the Vampires distribution problem, has posted a release date of September 11th through Columbia Pictures. [Scooped by 'jaallen'.]
August 18, 1998... While hosting a panel at this year's San Diego Comic Convention about his latest film, director John Carpenter took questions from the audience. Carpenter confirmed that his trademark electro-synth score would again be heard in Vampires. "I sit down at the keyboard and come up with the music while watching the picture," Carpenter said. "Which is why all my films sound the same." Carpenter's up-front answer to those who would shut him out of the final cut version of his films drew enthusiastic applause from the audience members. "I make the final cut. It's my picture, [so] keep your fucking hands off my picture." [Reported by Patrick Sauriol, who had his own Carpenter sighting at the Marriott hotel Thursday night.]
October 8, 1998... Live over California way? Can you get to the Long Beach Wide Screen Festival in, where else? Long Beach? Well, they're screening a bunch of cool movies from The Haunting to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. They are also showing Vampires, with Carpenter himself appearing on 10/23 to talk about his films. Have a blast. [Scoop provided anonymously]
October 19, 1998... Less than two weeks to Hallowe'en and the official release of the next Carpenter flick. Want another review to tide you over until then? We've been hearing a mixed bag of reviews from those who've seen Vampires, but this fellow here told us he liked it better than Blade -- which is still our fave from last summer.
"I was able to get my hands on a screening tape of Vampires this weekend. And I have to say this is a very cool movie. Very John Carpenter, lots of blood, guts and swearing. James Woods is Jack Crow, the bad-ass vampire slayer. Altough, he's basically Snake Plissken with sunglasses instead of an eye-patch. Constantly swearing, smoking, drinking, and of course, killing just about every bad guy in sight. And speaking of the vampires, they look great. They move cool, kill cool, and die REALLY cool. Flames bursting and everything. There is also a very cool explanation to where vamps come from, but I don't want to give it away. This is much better than Blade, it's a lot more low-key, no CGI or bad techno soundtrack. I'd give it three stars, good performances, great fight scenes.
"And one more thing, I was told by the person I got the tape from that the country-blues soundtrack in the European version (the one I saw) is not going to be the one in the Amercian release."
[Staked and submitted by 'Psi9179'.]
October 20, 1998... "The CARPENTER Soundtrack is out," our scooper reports, illuminating some light on which soundtrack North American audiences will be able to hear and purchase. "Bought one for my wife on Oct. 13th. It's what we heard when we saw the Dragon Con screening back in August. I think we can finally put to rest the silly rumours about someone else's music being used. Has anyone actually SEEN a version of the film without Carpenter's music?
"Oh, and two members of the band on the soundtrack you may have heard of: Steve Cropper and Donald 'Duck' Dunn of the Blues Brothers band. Great, great stuff." [Contributed by Jason.]
October 27, 1998... Three new reviews for Carpenter's latest. The first two couldn't be farther apart in their comments, with the third coming in on the recommendation side of the fence. But first up is the 'don't see it' review of the flick:
"well, i just went to a pre screening of the movie, John Carpenter's Vampires, and, sad to say...but it was terrible. let me apologize now for any spelling errors as i have been drinking coffee...now that that is out of the way...this scoop will contain some spoilers, so dont read it if you dont want to know some stuff. the movie started out on a bad note, several shots of the stereotypical 80's dark, brooding bad ass in sunglasses doing a silent nod. the movie is rife with the bad ass characters speaking one line sentences that are supposed to have a profound impact on the viewers and incite a sense of fear in the character, but all it does is arouse memories of movies like Tango and Cash, just about ANY arnold schwarenegger movie and countless others that spawned hordes of trenchcoat wearing punisher wannabes in the late 80's. the opening sequence involves the raiding of a vampire nest, that seemed to have potential to be slightly thrilling and exciting, but ended up being a kind of drab and mundane affect on me. it was kind of boring actually. on another side note, the movie was WAAAAAYYYYY too long. so anyway, after the killing of the nine vampires, with cool burning deaths (one of the movies good points was a cool sunlight burning effect on the vampires) they go to a hotel to a party funded by the vatican and attended by the sheriff that involved lots of beer and hookers. a few breasts in this spot. the hooker that james woods was going to hook up with gets bitten by the master vampire of the nest that they just killed and then he goes on to kill every member of the vampire hunting team and all of the hookers. the baldwin guy and james woods escape with the hooker, who they use to find out where the master is through their developing telepathic link. blah blah blah...the movie goes through a big middle sequence with some legends and tales being told about the master, who happens to be the first ever known case of vampirism. the new padre that they get after the other one is killed, tells them that he is looking for a black cross so that the master and his kin nay walk about in the sunlight. this padre guy sucks. also in this long middle are countless, pointless, uninspiring shots of bad-assness and tough guy machismo that went out with tight-rolled jeans. anyway, baldwin gets bitten and doesnt tell woods, they finally find the master in this small podunk town and there is a fight. a couple of vampires get killed, but james woods gets captured...baldwin gets bitten more and begins to change and the padre hides as we find out that a cardinal of the vatican has sided with the vampires in exchange for eternal life, and the need the blood of woods, a crusader, to finish the ritual to turn the vampires into daywalkers (to coin a Blade phrase). so the padre shoots the cardinal, baldwin helps out woods, and then the vampires die. pretty much. the ending was even more painful than the rest of the movie with this corny love scene, which thankfully lasted only 10 seconds, between baldwin and the hooker with a weird mole that they carted around the whole show, and also a showdown between baldwin and woods and he begins to change into a vampire even more. the script was terrible, the characters erupting into these weird little shouting matches that seemed unnecessary at several points in the film, very similar to those tom cruise freakouts that he does in every movie. anyway, the music sucked as well and at some points it was downright terrible, not even matching the 'emotion' of the scene. you'll know what i mean if you have the misfortune of seeing this piece of crap. i like james woods too...and he some okay tirades of expletive filled spoutings in the flick...but it didnt make up for the sick feeling in my stomach that i was left with. anyway...i didnt like it. but i thought Blade was ok. the script was too terse in that movie...but i like a lot of dialogue." [Our reviewer who drank too much coffee was a fellow named John.]
And our second review, miles apart from the first: "Carpenter is at it again and heīs mighty good at it. He has decided to play it straight this time. No more funny stuff. This vampire flick says goodbye to irony, a rare and beautiful sight these days. The story evolves around the excavation of various vampire nests and Carpenter cherishes the chance to give a Western tribute. The Wild Bunch, Leone, Hawks, you name it, all in ultra-stylished slow-mo close-ups, but surely not derivative as the film has its own rhythm and an absolutely great music score (by Carpenter himself again) that ties the film together. While there are some stunning visuals (especially a scene where the Vampires literally rise out of the earth) I must say that the horror elements seem to be inserted for visual splendor (although Carpenter of course once more kicks the church's butt) and an excuse to use all those buckets of blood standing on the set. Rather this is a take at the adventure genre with the Vampire hunters presented as a task force elite group and fine details of the way their weaponry is handled. Carpenter restrains himself to an absolutely classic B-movie strategy (almost Don-Siegel-like) with no waste picture in it.
"The actors are great, especially James Woods has a juicy take at the less-facial-movement-than-the-young-Eastwood type but I canīt subscribe to the Snake Plissken theory of the previous scooper. His traumatic 'DIE F***ING VAMPIRE!!!' outbursts surely would not have been seen at the eye-patch man. Baldwin is a good counterpart, Sheryl Lee has not much more to do than to look sexy and unconscious (and bite a big chunk of flesh out of the odd neck) and Schell surely had a lot of fun as church representative.
"Maybe the best Carpenter of the 90s (along with In The Mouth Of Madness) this is surely a must-see. As far as I can tell the whole audience (this played the biggest cinema in town) went along with the film. Oh, yes and there were bursts of laughter at the film's sole funny line. Confronted with the goth-rocker looks of the chief vampire, Woods makes him mighty angry as he utters the ultimate tagline towards the undead: 'Come on, fashion victim.'"[Scoop provided by 'e9126635'.]
"Well, this is your good friend 'Stone Cold Austin Powers' taking a break from rasslin and shagging to catch a sneak preview of Vampires, and I'm glad to say it was pretty solid. Lots of blood and gore, but still very minimalist. No bad techno music (the score, very reminiscent of Escape from LA, is catchy as hell), no bad CG effects, just an old-fashioned action/horror movie.
"I haven't seen Blade but my friend I was with saw it and said this doesn't come close. Of course, he's been obsessed with the Blade character, and never heard of the book Vampires, so I guess he's biased. He said that this is DEFINITELY more gory.
"It doesn't take a rocket-scientist to figure out James Woods is better as a bad guy than the good guy, but he's excellent here, a more talkative version of Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken. The villain, on the other hand, is built up strongly, but the final showdown between the two is disappointing. John Carpenter seems to have a knack for casting cool actors as villains (Isaac Hayes in Escape from NY, George Corraface in Escape from LA, B-movie karate star Thomas Ian Griffith here), but always dissapoints in the mano-a-mano at the end. (Big Trouble in Little China, anyone?)
"Sheryl Lee is incredibly sexy as the lead, looking like Lisa Marie Presley. Daniel Baldwin does a good Alec impression as Wood's right-hand man. His performance is just as focused and equally bad-ass as Woods, so he must have been laying off the 8-balls while filming.
"Very little of the book's characters you named are in the film. There is no secretary, no sharpshooter, and no mention of the silver bullets. MINOR SPOILER: The team, with the exception of Woods and Baldwin are all killed in the first 15 minutes, so we barely get to know any of them. SPOILER END.
"The end left something to be desired, but of course leaves room for a sequel. All in all, a decent flick. If you liked From Dusk Till Dawn, you'll probably love this. Of note: the end credits said Copyright 1997, so apparently this has been sitting on the shelf for a while, which shouldn't lead you to think that the film is bad." ['Stone Cold Austin Powers'.]
October 29, 1998... And a final three more reviews for you to read and decide on whether you'll take in this picture on its opening weekend. The reviews we've seen have definitely been a mixed grab-bag: about half give it a recommendation, while the other half say it's downright awful and cliched in most parts. SPOILER WARNING is given for all three reviews.
" I was at a special sneak preview last night for John Carpenter's Vampires, and all I can say is 'WOW!' The movie was phenomenal! The costumes were first rate, the make-up effects were superb, James Woods and Daniel Baldwin have never been better. The chemistry between Crow and Montoya (Woods and Baldwin) is spot on. All in all it totally kicks ass! After the screening Daniel Baldwin was on hand to answer any questions about the movie that we might have had. He flew in from New York after taping the Letterman Show and arrived at 10:00, and after the film he gave a small impromptu speech. He's actually very down to earth, and his character in the film is a total bad ass.
"SPOILER WARNING! The film is based on the novel 'Vampire$' by John Steakley and is actually pretty faithful to the book. What is didn't expect was the total man-handling that Sheryl Lee took at the hands of Baldwin and Woods. Talk about getting the shit kicked out of you. The Catholic church also takes it in the chops here as well. The archbishop that Woods serves under makes a deal with the vampire Valiq to turn him into a day walker, but they need the blood of a slayer, so he betrays Woods to Valiq, who kills Woods entire slayer crew and then comes after Woods. Guess how it ends? Well, all I can say is that there will be a sequel and that Carpenter and Baldwin are in the process of writing it as I type this, so keep your eyes peeled for a sequel if this thing does moderately well at the box office. From what I've seen, it should have no trouble bleeding the opposition dry!"
[Review submitted by Aaron Freedland.]
"John Carpenter's Vampires is the latest horror film from you guesssed it, John Carpenter. The famous director of such cult horror/sci-fi classics as Escape from New York and The Thing unfortunately hits a real low note (Carpenter also scores his own films) with this gratuitously sexist gorefest. Jack Crow (James Woods) is the head of the Vatican's vampire-hunting squad. After a successful day of hunting he and his crew relax at a motel with lots of beer and hookers. Unfortunately their ribald celebration (even the team's priest throws down a few and makes a pass at one of the whores) is interupted by the master vampire, Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith). In the ensuing bloodbath most of the squad is bloodily eliminated (Valek likes to rip people in two with his bare hands) leaving just Jack, Montoya (Daniel Baldwin) and Katrina (Sheryl Lee), a hooker who was bitten by Valek. Apparently Katrina has a telepathic link to Valek, which Jack plans to exploit. Unfortunately there is the little problem that she will turn into a vampire herself in 48 hours. Valek himslf is hunting for a black cross that he needs to be able to walk in the sunlight. With the assistance of Father Guiteau (Tim Guinee), a vatican archivist who is assigned to assist them, Crow and Montoya prepare to face off with the master.
"The plot is all well and good and the action well staged. Carpenter gives the proceedings with a nicely campy over-the-top style. The actors, particularly Woods, who has that don't-mess-with-me-or-I'll-drive-a-stake-into-you attitude down cold, and Griffith who makes a terrific embodiment of pure evil are good. Unfortunately the script by Don Jakoby makes our two heros sexist pigs who strip Katrina naked and tie her to a bed so that she won't attack them when she turns into a bloodsucker. They proceed to beat her severely when she is not cooperative and refuses to answer questions. Father Guiteau also gets beaten up twice when he refuses to divuldge church secrets only marginally related to the task at hand. This sexism and priest-beating is completely gratuitous. They do not help move the story along and they make the heroes unsympathetic in the extreme. Just because Crow and Montoya are supposed to be bad-asses doesn't mean they have to beat the living daylights out of everyone good, bad or bloodsucker.
"The real shame of Vampires is that I would have liked this movie had it not been for the sexism and physical abuses of the heros. Minus the sexism, Jack Crow makes a tough-as-nails vampire hunter and Montoya an able assistant. The action was humorous and exciting and there are a couple of genuine scares here too. Unfortunatley Carpenter drives a stake through his foot with all the brutality. Hopefully Carpenter will find such offensive additions unecessary in his next film (a good starting point would be to give Jakoby the stake, metaphorically speaking of course)."
[Reviewed by Guy.]
"I was invited to an early screening of this movie last night (10-27-98). John Carpenter's Vampires was a horrible movie. The special effects used were not very convincing. The weapons used and the way they used them were unimaginative. The acting was just terrible. Now I really do like James Woods but I could not be convinced of his so called hatred towards these vampires. I don't think we will be seeing any good films from John Carpenter any time soon, anyone remember Escape from L.A.? Blade was a much better vampire movie in my opinion. [Review by 'Asass'.]
Related Sites:
The Raw News -- The John Carpenter Web Page has devoted a seperate section for listing news about Carpenter's latest picture. You can also read a biography and filmography for Carpenter, and this site's JC links are second-to-none. The site was created and is maintained by Marc Bright.