John Carpenter Has a Brutal Gangster Film in the Works?

**Shotgunjim** · 22nd November 2008

I actually liked Ghosts of Mars!?

The legendary horror master John Carpenter (seen above) hasn't done any work for the big screen since 2001, when he last wrote and directed Ghosts of Mars, a movie which most have come to hate. However, there's apparently a gangster project floating around with Carpenter's name attached - titled The Prince. Carpenter is actually in pre-production on a film with Nic Cage titled Riot that has been in the news quite a bit recently. Thanks to the guys at CHUD, we have some early details on The Prince, and if there's any project I hope Carpenter does next after Riot, I hope it's this. Once you hear what it's about, you'll agree.

Devin recently spoke with Jeremy Passmore, who is writing the script for The Prince along with Andre Fabrizio. "We were trying to do Unforgiven as a gangster movie, because we're both just huge fans of that." So far so good - but what is it about? "The premise is that this guy was the most [badass] gangster of all time in Las Vegas, and he's left the life and created this whole new world. His wife died but he's raising his kid. He's living in the middle of nowhere and he's this very religious, trying to live a straight life guy. His daughter is now going to school at UCLA and she disappears, and he goes looking for her. The trail leads to Vegas and he has to go get her, and the entire city kind of comes down on top of him."

If you're familiar with John Carpenter, you know that a gangster movie isn't exactly his forte (horror is). "It's a bit of a departure. It's definitely more of a very character based crime movie." Passmore adds that the version Fabrizio and Carpenter were happiest with was "brutal and violent and dark at the end." Unfortunately he doesn't know the status or whether or not this will ever get made, but at least they've got a script and a director. From this concept alone, I'm actually very interested in seeing this, and I really hope it comes together. Carpenter doing a gangster movie might actually result in something quite badass.