Japanese Edition Cover
Huge thanks to Japan’s #1 SCI-Fi, horror & Exploitation Movie mag Eiga-Hiho .
Very honored to be invited to Kim Rebecca Gottlieb-Walker’s “On Set With John Carpenter” and Carpenter’s Lost Themes I&II release event talk show. Was called up on stage to discuss and share for the Halloween 1 & 2 segment of the show as a member of MM Net. Brought with me a batch of rare shots from the films and archives, especially the ones that didn’t make it on Kim’s book. Even brought my Myers by Justin Mabry since the crowd had never seen a proper Myers replica up close(Thanks Darren Hughes).
Got to sit by and chat with one my heros Mr. Yoshiaki Washizu on stage. He’s the most famous Carpenter critic/fan/collector in Japan and he shocked the audience with his memorabilia and screen used items. Backstage he told me he owns an actual DP kirk(wow).
In the end I played a game with the crowd and gave the winner a burnt CD of the super rare Coup de Villes album.
Me in the middle during the Halloween segment
The rejected Japanese cover
Mr. Yoshiaki Washizu’s rare Carpenter memorabilia segment…Shots taken by the audience
And finally…Back stage with the one and only Mr. Takashi Shimizu : The director & creator of the original Ju-On/ The Grudge.
That nights special guest!
As all horror directors, he is a huge John Carpenter fan and was flattered to see a Myers replica by Justin Mabry up close.
Told me that the original straight to video films Ju-On/the Curse 1&2 will not see a Blu Ray release due to the original distributor going bankrupt and the masters are in limbo. Shocked to hear that he had not even received royalties for the other Ju-On films he had directed and to this day has not received a single copy of his films on blu ray.
Asked him how Sarah Michelle Gellar was like on set and he laughed explaining how Sam Raimi tried to stop him saying she is hard to work with. She was pretty paranoid on set as he remembers and he joked saying “She will always be the 2nd Buffy…”
Also asked him if he was involved in the Sadako Vs Kayako film and he said “No way!!” The studio had asked another director first and then asked him later which really angered him
Other amazing stories he shared was that Hollywood had asked him to originally direct The Thing prequel but he turned it down saying,“You can’t direct another Thing, there can only be one and that’s by Carpenter…”
All in all, he was a fantastic person and it was a blast getting to chat with him backstage while waiting for our turns to go up on stage. With the curtains closed and the media away, he’s just a true horror fan like everyone else. In the end he gave me flyers to his new upcoming projects and we parted ways at the train station.
I didn’t need his autograph…he gave me his business card…whoooaa!!
Special postcards given to the ones who purchased the book at the event
(WOW)
Sounds really fun…I’m loving the new JC tunes so far, as it sounds are you and many others!
