Every Cancelled John Carpenter Film We NEVER Got To See

After the success of Halloween and Escape from New York, Carpenter prepared to adapt Alfred Bester's novel, The Stars, My Destination. Like a cyberpunk revision of The Count of Monte Cristo, the book follows an outcast called Gully Foyle who seeks revenge on those who abandoned him in space.

Carpenter was drawn to the novel’s brutality, the protagonist's obsessive revenge, and the story's bleak vision of a future shaped by psychic teleportation (called jaunting). Carpenter had explored similar themes in his earlier work, so The Stars, My Destination seemed right up his alley.

Of course, there were serious roadblocks. Studios baulked at Gully's moral ugliness, fearing audiences wouldn't sympathise with an unredeemable antihero. Due to the story's intense hallucinations, non-linear plot, and extreme violence, Carpenter worried it would be overly expensive. Producer Jack Schwartzman tried to find ways to make The Stars, My Destination on the cheap, but Carpenter refused to compromise the source material.

The only script that materialised for The Stars, My Destination wasn't up to standard according to Carpenter, causing him to back out.