article on John Carpenter

A GREAT romance ended for the director John Carpenter 10 years ago on the set of his movie "Ghosts of Mars."

 His star Courtney Love was replaced one week before principal photography began, and after writing the script and the music as well as directing, Mr. Carpenter was bone tired. It was right in the middle of a scene when it hit him: "I don’t love her anymore."

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And while Mr. Carpenter likes to bring up the shellacking he received from critics after his remake of "The Thing" opened in 1982, the film is now regarded as one of the best horror remakes ever. There is also a revival of interest in his Reagan-era alien movie They Live, with rumors of a remake and a recent book about it by the novelist Jonathan Lethem, the winner of a MacArthur grant.

This seems to make Mr. Carpenter somewhat uncomfortable. After listening to a passage from Mr. Lethem’s book praising one famously long fight scene involving Keith David and the wrestler Roddy Piper, Mr. Carpenter scoffs. "Dude, he was a wrestler,"  he says. "I cast a wrestler. We just wanted to put on a show, because this was a wrestler. I like what this genius writer says."