Every Cancelled John Carpenter Film We NEVER Got To See

During the filming of The Thing, Universal Pictures offered Carpenter the chance to adapt Stephen King's novel, Firestarter, which centres around a young girl, Charlie McGee, who can manifest fire with her mind.

Carpenter took the job and promptly hired The Thing co-writer, Bill Lancaster, once more to work on a script. He envisioned Richard Dreyfuss as Charlie's father and Bill Lancaster's own father, Burt Lancaster, as the villain.

But it never came to fruition. Despite the fact The Thing is revered as a masterpiece today, it tanked at theatres and with critics during its initial theatrical run, causing Universal to get cold feet over Carpenter's future. Believing the Halloween director was box-office poison, the studio handed the directing duties of Firestarter to Mark L. Lester, who worked off a different script. 

The finished product wasn't great, with King himself comparing it to "cafeteria mashed potatoes". The story didn't end too badly, though. Carpenter would adapt another King story one year later in Christine, which was treated more favourably by contemporary audiences and remains today a well-loved movie in his filmography.

Even though Carpenter failed to adapt Firestarter, he composed the score for the 2022 remake with his son, Cody. That particular adaptation didn't fare well either, sadly, but the Carpenters' score still brought the goods.