Carpenter has always stated he became a filmmaker to direct Westerns, with movies like Rio Bravo and Once Upon A Time In The West being his personal favourites. The genre had died out by the time he came to Hollywood but most of his films have been Westerns in disguise, including Assault On Precinct 13, Escape From New York and even They Live. He, at least, got the chance to work with one of his idols, however, when he was commissioned to write a script for John Wayne in the late seventies. He worked closely with Wayne and his family on a script called Blood River, which was about an aging gunslinger mentoring a young apprentice. In Carpenters mind, he wanted Elvis for the other role, but Wayne had Ron Howard in mind and told him about the script while they were on the set of The Shootist. Unfortunately, Waynes ill health meant the movie was ultimately scrapped, although the script was eventually used for a little-seen TV movie in 1991.
