“It really seemed an idea Gimmicky:” Why Clint Eastwood transmitted this Thriller John Carpenter from the 1970s

ahsan65@gmail.comJuly 27, 2025

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“It really seemed an idea Gimmicky:” Why Clint Eastwood transmitted this Thriller John Carpenter from the 1970s

Clint Eastwood refused the chance to play in the bizarre thriller of the 1970s Laura Mars eyesWritten by a young John Carpenter. After his beginnings Dark star failed to find an audience in the early 1970s, Carpenter turned his hand towards scripting. He wrote many specifications during this period, including Escape New York.

As a director, few can touch John Carpenter’s film which takes place from the late 1970s to the 1990s, where he made consecutive classics Halloween And The thing. Carpenter also wanted to work with the stars of Clint Eastwood caliber, but the two never collaborated Despite several efforts from Carpenter.

It is ironic that the closest to Eastwood probably faced a horror film by John Carpenter was the one where the latter acted as a screenwriter only. Laura Mars eyes is a 1978 Luride cooler where the holder fashion photographer mysteriously wins the ability to see through the eyes of a serial killer.

The film was a decent success, which exceeded double its production budget with a bean with a box office of $ 20 million (via Mojo Office Box). Laura Mars eyes was an effort to make a more classy slasher, but the criticisms were widely mixedWith several criticisms finding him superficial.

Clint Eastwood put the eyes of John Carpenter from Laura Mars while he found the idea “too gimmicky”

Eastwood did not have the vision of Laura Mars’s eyes

In Conversations with Clint: Paul Nelson’s lost interviews with Clint Eastwood, 1979-1983Eastwood discusses several projects that have slipped through his fingers. One of them was Laura Mars eyeswhere the studio offered Clint the chance to lead and co-star as a main detective character when Barbra Streisand was attached to the title role.

It was at the time when Streisand spoke of making the film and playing the role. It was then a model that saw all these things and it was an excellent excuse to wear a lot of clothes and all that. But that looked very much like a gimmicky idea.

Although there are a few Clint Eastwood Slashers existing – including its beginnings as a director Play Misty for me – It is not a genre to which he returned a lot. He may have felt that Laura Mars eyes was already a bit close to Play Misty for me Tonally, but it looks like the premise itself was the main concern.

After Steve McQueen and Barbra Streisand abandoned it, Clint Eastwood and his girlfriend at the time Sondra Locke took over as stars in 1977 The glove.

In general, Eastwood is quite old -fashioned and traditional with regard to his work of realization, and avoids “gadgets“He feels distracted the audience of the story told. A Slasher film where it should film several sequences of a pov of a killer would simply not have been to the taste of Eastwood As a director.

John Carpenter tried to work with Clint Eastwood several times

Clint Eastwood did not want to escape New York

Clint Eastwood close -up to off -screen search at Pale Rider

Thank you to the success of Dirty harry Films, Eastwood became one of the largest film stars on the planet in the 1970s. This coincided with his move behind the camera, and he became typical to find him lead his own projects, to have a great creative quantity in the way they were manufactured.

When he wrote the script for the first time to Escape New York In the 1970s, Carpenter imagined Clint Play Snake Plissken. However, when the film was produced in 1981, Eastwood was far from the budgetary range of the dystopian action thriller.

Kurt Russell has since admitted that he imitated Clint Eastwood Escape New York …

After replacements like Charles Bronson, Kurt Russell accepted the role. While the man himself may have transmitted the project, Russell has since admitted that he was secretly playing Eastwood Escape New York. From raucous voice to cool behavior, Snake is essentially a futuristic vision of the nameless man name.

When the carpenter Big problem in little China was about to fight with the similar theme of Eddie Murphy The golden child In 1986, the director also wanted to recruit a major star. Carpenter’s first choices for her fantastic epic were either Jack Nicholson or Clint Eastwood, but the two refused him.

Again, Russell has become the replacement of Eastwood as a head Big problem in the little China. Instead of imitating Clint again, Russell used the film to test his best printing of swagging, Blowhard John Wayne; The results are delicious.

John Carpenter hated the final version of Laura Mars’s eyes

Carpenter almost gave up the eyes of Laura Mars

Carpenter made a healthy life as a writer while he was trying to get his realization career out, which included the sale of his specifications Eyes In Streisand and his producer / boyfriend at the time, Jon Peters. Carpenter had almost no involvement after putting his script and did not approve what has become of.

Carpenter was clearly proud of his original Laura Mars eyes Scenario, feeling that he had a great hook for a slasher / horror film. The final film had little resemblance to what Carpenter wrote, in particular by adding an end of torsion which reveals that the killer is someone close to Laurawhich only opens several plot holes.

In an interview that Carpenter gave to The guardian In 1994, Carpenter underlined how filmmakers behind Laura Mars eyes did not understand his vision, Umm, the vision. Carpenter illustrated using the newly invented Panaglid camera (which he used for the Pov of Michael Myers Halloween), only to learn from the film’s producer they spoiled this part.

After learning, they had not shot the POV scenes with a Fallaycam, Carpenter then asked if they had filmed his original final. This implies that Laura (played by Faye Dunaway) must hide from the killer while seeing only in his point of view.

“Well, did you attack the killer and she defended herself by hiding and seeing through her eyes?” “No, we didn’t do it either. I can’t help you. It was Jon Peters, by the way.

Despite Laura Mars eyes Having developed a cult fandom in the following years (James Wan used it as inspiration for his horror film in 2021, Clever), Carpenter does not seem to have warmed up. He had a clear vision of the way she should have been executed, but the final film failed.

John Carpenter’s vampires have resurrected his original concept

Vampires have become a stealthy remake

Katrina de Sheryl Lee is held in a door that did not impress in the vampires of John Carpenter

The brilliant Laura Mars eyes And the wild horror of Carpenter Western Vampires could not be more different from toneally, but the latter gave Carpenter a chance to dust off his original Eyes premise. A key intrigue in Vampires Involves a sex worker named Katrina (Sheryl Lee) bitten by a powerful vampire and be able to see through his eyes.

This distance visualization leads to several frightening scenes where Katrina is forced to look at this creature through the victimsThat vampire hunters (led by Jack Woods by James) then use to find him. Although this is not a large part of Vampires Overall, it gave Carpenter a chance to show his initial plan to Laura Mars eyes.

Source: Box Office Mojo, Conversations with Clint: Paul Nelson’s lost interviews with Clint Eastwood, 1979-1983, The Guardian / YouTube