Interesting interview with John Carpenter - his company wanted to sue Konami.

NightWolve · 10/27/2015, 12:23 AM

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/john-carpenter-speaks-director-halloween-834754

Some interesting tidbits from this interview with Director John Carpenter. Figure it might be interesting to some here, both in gaming and movie-making areas.

1) Carpenter's company CanalPlus sued Luc Besson (known for The Fifth Element, Transporter, Kiss of the Dragon, Taken, The Professional, etc.) for his Lockout movie feeling it ripped off Escape from New York. They won 80,000 Euros in French court.

2) They also wanted to sue Konami for the Metal Gear Solid series, feeling it too "kinda ripped off" Escape from New York, but Carpenter told them not to because he knows and likes the director (Hideo Kojima), says he's a nice guy, etc...

Quote from: John Carpenter[CanalPlus] wanted to also go after the video game Metal Gear Solid, which is kind of a rip-off of Escape From New York, too, but I told them not to do that. I know the director of those games, and he's a nice guy, or at least he's nice to me.

I guess a point of discussion would be, does anybody familiar both with the Metal Gear Solid series see a "solid" comparison with Escape From New York ??

EmperorIng · 10/27/2015, 12:40 AM

Well it's patently obvious that Kojima (before he was a hack) ripped off his favorite movies to make his video-game plots (e.g. Terminator + Blade Runner + Invasion of the Body Snatchers = SNATCHER)

The fact that the character Solid Snake looks a great deal like Snake Plissken, plus shares his name with said character, and an intro that gloriously rips off Escape from New York... well, it's beyond coincidence.

It's neat that Carpenter's company sued Besson's production and won; I always wondered what Carpenter thought of his character becoming so popular through Snake.

NightWolve · 10/27/2015, 12:45 AM

Oh, no kidding, the Kurt Russell character in Escape from New York was named Snake too ? Hah. Yeah, it's just been so long since I seen that movie, it's mostly a blur, so I wondered how much of a comparison there was to it. Good thing he likes MGS/Kojima then. Heh.

Gentlegamer · 10/27/2015, 12:45 AM

Never forget his best work

NightWolve · 10/27/2015, 12:48 AM

Never forget!

Gentlegamer · 10/27/2015, 12:54 AM

xcrement5x · 10/27/2015, 12:26 PM

Cool article to read in general, thanks for sharing

Dicer · 10/27/2015, 12:38 PM

So sue Besson, but not Konami cause of "nice guy" Kojima?

Yeah, O.K.

JoshTurboTrollX · 10/27/2015, 12:50 PM

I initially thought this was in relation to Snatcher being similar to Bladerunner... but then realized it wasn't a John Carpenter film. duh.

elmer · 10/27/2015, 01:12 PM

Quote from: NightWolve on 10/27/2015, 12:23 AMSome interesting tidbits from this interview with Director John Carpenter. Figure it might be interesting to some here, both in gaming and movie-making areas.

Thanks, I absolutely love both John Carpenter's early films and Luc Besson's ... my 2 favorite film makers.

Definitely going to have to look for Carpenter's Lost Themes CD now this I know about it ... gotta "Obey" and "Consume"!

Quote from: EmperorIng on 10/27/2015, 12:40 AMThe fact that the character Solid Snake looks a great deal like Snake Plissken, plus shares his name with said character, and an intro that gloriously rips off Escape from New York... well, it's beyond coincidence.

There's paying "homage" to a favorite character, and there's "rip-off".

Apart from "Snake" being called "Snake", I'm really not seeing anything in that MGS briefing that would count as a rip-off.

The story seems very different to me (from that video ... I've not played the game).

Does everyone in the game go around saying "Snake? ... I thought you were dead!" like they do in the EFNY movie?

Gentlegamer · 10/27/2015, 01:18 PM

Psycho Punch · 10/27/2015, 01:23 PM

Quote from: Gentlegamer on 10/27/2015, 01:18 PM

Don't forget the codename that Snake has in MGS2...

Psycho Punch · 10/27/2015, 01:26 PM

I wonder if John Carpenter ever went after the creators of this game that's obviously not licensed.

NightWolve · 10/27/2015, 01:50 PM

If anything, they should be sued for having had the ballz to release that trash of a game and insult the IP!

ClodBusted · 10/27/2015, 02:23 PM

Quote from: NightWolve on 10/27/2015, 12:23 AMdoes anybody familiar both with the Metal Gear Solid series see a "solid" comparison with Escape From New York ??

Yes. This movie is even called "Die Klapperschlange" (The rattlesnake) in Germany.

xcrement5x · 10/27/2015, 03:41 PM

This was also funny to read by the way

QuoteWhat about Halloween? People assume it would have made you millions, is that not the case?

No, I've made some money on that. Hell, yeah. I'm doing fine. I'm living a great life and get to watch NBA basketball and get to play video games, so there's nothing I can complain about.

I would possibly actually watch a Twitch stream if it was John Carpenter playing something interesting and chatting with people.