Please let The Ward be better than John Carpenter’s last one, Ghosts of Mars. That’s all I ask.
Sadly JC won’t be doing any of the music for his new film so no cool Halloween style electro cool.
Carpenter has given the go ahead for Mark Kilian (Day Break, Legacy) to compose the score.
“THE WARD is an intense psychological thriller set in a mental institution where a young woman, Kristen is haunted by a mysterious and deadly ghost. As danger creeps closer, she comes to realize that this ghost might be darker than she could have imagined.
Kristen, early 20’s wakes to find herself bruised, cut, drugged and held against her will in a remote ward of Chamberlain Psychiatric Hospital . She is completely disorientated, with no idea why she was brought this place and no memory of her life.
The other patients in the ward, four equally troubled girls, offer no answers and Kristen quickly realises things are not as they seem. The air is heavy with secrets and at night, when the hospital is dark and foreboding, she hears strange and disturbing sounds. It appears they are not alone.
One by one the girls disappear and Kristen must find a way out of this hellish place before the ghost comes for her too. As she struggles to escape, she will uncover a truth far more dangerous and horrifying than anyone could have imagined.”
The film stars Jared Harris (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Mamie Gummer (Taking Woodstock), Lyndsy Fonseca (Kick-Ass) Amber Heard (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane), and Danielle Panabaker (Friday the 13th) and was written by Michael and Shawn Rasmussen.
Amber Heard is the lovely young lady who is on the up and up. She was in Zombieland and has a few films coming up. One of which is The Rum Diary, an adaption of Hunter S Thompson’s book starring Johnny Depp.
“Those considerable physical charms get the period-piece treatment in The Rum Diary, an adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s novel. Heard literally had to be sewn into her costumes to play a woman torn between Depp and Aaron Eckhart in late 1950s Puerto Rico. “Johnny actually found the manuscript at Hunter’s house and encouraged him to publish it,” says Heard, a lifelong bookworm who was such a fan of Thompson’s writing, she wrote a letter to the film’s producers explaining why she would be perfect for the project. “Johnny cared so much, and he’s just a really down-to-earth, nice person.” Heard recalls the day Depp rescued a stray dog from the neighbourhood where they were shooting. “Well, the dog ended up being pregnant—I think it had six puppies—and then another dog we assumed to be the father showed up,” she recalls, laughing. “So now, instead of adopting one dog, he had eight, but he took care of them. He asked other people to carry one back on the plane because he had so many.”
Heard would have happily obliged but she had to jet off to the Washington set of The Ward, a mental-institution thriller directed by the man behind the original Halloween movie, John Carpenter. Though many young actors do horror films as a stepping stone to more serious films, Heard adores the genre. “With a drama, actors get very serious, like they’re always in character, and there’s something funny and pretentious about that,” says Heard, whose forays into slasher-ville include Zombieland and the upcoming And Soon the Darkness, which she also co-produced. “You can’t take yourself seriously when you’re sitting at lunch next to the person that just tried to stab you. I also like horror films because girls actually get to kick ass, instead of just being the hot girl that supports the male character.”
Starring Amber Heard, Danielle Panabaker, Jared Harris. Due out on 24th September 2010 and I can’t wait.
The story follows a girl (Heard) who is admitted to a psychiatric ward, meets other girls there with distinct personalities and discovers a mysterious girl haunting the halls at night.
Last week I posted an update from Amber Heard about John Carpenter’s latest film, The Ward. All very exciting to know that JC is working on a new film.
Today, Bloody Disgusting posted the new images above that give us a little glimpse as to what we can expect from the film. Nothing like seeing a kid in zombie / ghoul makeup to show that the film could have some very spooky scenes.
“THE WARD is an intense psychological thriller set in a mental institution where a young woman, Kristen is haunted by a mysterious and deadly ghost. As danger creeps closer, she comes to realize that this ghost might be darker than she could have imagined.
Kristen, early 20′s wakes to find herself bruised, cut, drugged and held against her will in a remote ward of Chamberlain Psychiatric Hospital . She is completely disorientated, with no idea why she was brought this place and no memory of her life.
The other patients in the ward, four equally troubled girls, offer no answers and Kristen quickly realises things are not as they seem. The air is heavy with secrets and at night, when the hospital is dark and foreboding, she hears strange and disturbing sounds. It appears they are not alone.
One by one the girls disappear and Kristen must find a way out of this hellish place before the ghost comes for her too. As she struggles to escape, she will uncover a truth far more dangerous and horrifying than anyone could have imagined.”
The film stars Jared Harris (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Mamie Gummer (Taking Woodstock), Lyndsy Fonseca (Kick-Ass) Amber Heard (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane), and Danielle Panabaker (Friday the 13th) and was written by Michael and Shawn Rasmussen.
Not satisfied with that? Well the French site canalplus have some footage and behind the scenes film and that can be seen if you click on the image below (as soon as I get an embeddable version I will update the post).
You’ve seen some photos and a bit of footage. What do you think then? Classic Carpenter or Rubbish Carpenter?
I recently posted a review of The Thing for my 31 Days of Horror. I mentioned there how much I loved that film and I am a big John Carpenter fan.
STYD spoke to Amber Heard (Zombieland, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, The Rum Diary) and they brought up the new John Carpenter film, The Ward.
“I think it’s awesome,” she enthused. “John is a legend and rightfully so. I love that I got to work with him.”
Heard co-stars alongside Danielle Panabaker and Jared Harris in what is Carpenter’s first feature film since Ghosts of Mars. “My character is arrested and thrown into an institution in the ’60s,” she explains of the supernatural thriller. “She meets all of these other characters and things start happening in the institution. You have to second-guess your main character, me, because she is in a mental institution. There are a lot of things that are coming in and out of the story and you don’t know what to think. It’s pretty intense. The film’s in post-production and it will hopefully honor the script, but it was fantastic and a thrilling story.”
Really excited about a new John Carpenter film. The Thing is genius, Halloween superb, Escape from New York is brilliant, They Live best fight scene ever, Starman, Big Trouble in Little China, Ghosts of Mars….moving on.
I just hope JC has got his mojo back and we get some of the greatness we used to love.
Been a while since there has been any news on any of John Carpenter’s new projects. There is nothing new about the prison one called Riot starring Nicholas Cage or the gangster film called The Prince.
However, there is some movement on his next film called The Ward (last mentioned back in February).
Carpenter has signed up Danielle Panabaker (Sky High, Friday the 13th) to star opposite Amber Heard (The Rum Diary).
It is a psychological horror thriller written by Michael and Shawn Rasmussen (Long Distance). The story follows a girl (Heard) who is admitted to a psychiatric ward where she meets other girls there with distinct personalities and discovers a mysterious girl haunting the halls at night. Panabaker plays another patient in the institution, a snobbish girl who flirts with orderlies and faces electroshock therapy.
In addition to Panabaker, Taking Woodstock star Mamie Gummer has also joined the cast as a patient in the ward. Principal photography is scheduled to begin next month in Spokane, Washington.
John Carpenter is one of my favourite directors, but his last film, Ghosts of Mars, in 2001 was not so good. The Ward does sound like it could be back to the brilliant John Carpenter we all want to see again.
I was watching John Carpenter’s The Thing on Sunday night and wishing we would get another film by the big guy that was worthy of his great period of filmmaking – something that would fit alongside Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, They Live, Escape From New York, and Big Trouble in Little China. There have been rumours and news snippets of John Carpenter making new films – a prison one called Riot starring Nicholas Cage and a gangster film called The Prince. However, it looks like neither of them will be his next one. No, according to First Showing, it appears that he will be going back to what he does best. Creepy horror. After 8 years John Carpenter is going to direct again with a film called The Ward. All we know about it is this – The psychological thriller will star Amber Heard as a young woman in a mental institution who is terrorized by a ghost. Shooting is scheduled to begin in May, with Echo Lake Entertainment and Saw series’ Peter Block producing and financing.
“The Ward is the kind of script that I’ve been looking for: a complex, visceral story, full of suspense and scares,” Carpenter told Hollywood Reporter. The script was written by Michael and Shawn Rasmussen.
Fingers crossed that it is a return to greatness. I can’t wait. What is your favourite John Carpenter film? What is his worst?
Please let The Ward be better than John Carpenter’s last one, Ghosts of Mars. That’s all I ask.
I recently posted a 
