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"I know there’s some rumblings about its anniversary. My question is ‘why’?” John Carpenter scoffs when Total Film magazine speaks to the horror director about 1983’s Christine in the new issue out on September 14, which features Wonka on the cover.
40 years on from the cult horror, it’s clear Carpenter still regards his job helming the Stephen King adaptation as just that – a job.
"I needed a job, frankly," recalls the 75-year-old filmmaker with a raspy chuckle. "The Thing was my very first studio film. I was just diving in the pool here, and all of a sudden, WHAM. And getting fired off a movie is not the most pleasant thing," Carpenter says, referring to being taken off duties on Universal's movie Firestarter after The Thing – remarkably, in hindsight – opened poorly with critics and audiences alike.
Now, Hannibal’s Bryan Fuller is putting the pedal to the metal and remaking Christine. "Oh boy," Carpenter says. “Well, good luck to him. It will probably be better.”
Keith Gordon, who played Arnie, the owner of the vindictive 1958 Plymouth Fury ‘Christine’, is more effusive about the project.
"I think he’s really talented, and a good person to do it," says Gordon. "I mean, I don’t have a negative feeling about people remaking something, especially 40 years later. Christine could be told in a different way and not be an insult to the original. There’s a very short list of untouchable classics that should never be remade – films where their groundbreaking-ness or idiosyncrasy is what makes them special. I wouldn’t want to see anybody’s remake of Citizen Kane, or 2001, or Raging Bull."
Christine is back in theaters for its 40th anniversary on October 20.
The above is just a snippet of our interview in the new issue of Total Film magazine, which features Wonka on the cover. The magazine hits shelves this Thursday, September 14, and features new insight into everything from The Exorcist: Believer to Killers of the Flower Moon, as well as plenty of reviews for all of the latest releases.
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