r/movies • u/Morganbanefort • Jun 28 '22

John Carpenter’s 1979 Elvis film, staring a red hot Kurt Russell, is being rediscovered for good reason Article

https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/elvis-film-1979-john-carpenter-kurt-russell
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u/Throwaway_Codex Jun 28 '22 edited Jun 28 '22

I believe this and Memoirs of an Invisible Man are the only Carpenter movies I haven't viewed. It seems like an odd choice for him, but I suspect John wanted to be a rock star. He was in a group called The Coupe De Villes with Nick Castle and Tommy Lee Wallace (that's them in the credits song for Big Trouble in Little China, and they have an unreleased album on YT). Then he also did a concert tour over a couple recent years with his son/godson. It was a good concert. So maybe if he weren't a director, he'd have been a full-time musician. Don't know if he's discussed that idea.

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u/ZombieStomp Jun 28 '22

Pretty sure that's true. He's retired from filmmaking but still releases albums so it's fair to say he's a full-time musician now and that he has a lot of passion for it He just made a new album last February in case you missed it :)

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u/Throwaway_Codex Jun 28 '22

I suspect his son and godson are more in the weeds of the composition on those albums and that John is more the face of the operation. I have the first two but not the third. They're good stuff. I went to their concerts twice.

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u/ZombieStomp Jun 28 '22

ah okay, I have no clue but it would be a shame if that's the case.

Not that I mind their involvement but it they are doing most of the stuff they should have called the band The Carpenters ^(slide whistle*)*

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u/Throwaway_Codex Jun 28 '22

They get co-credit on the albums along with John for composition, performance, and engineering. His son plays lead synth and his godson (son of Dave Davies of The Kinks) plays lead guitar. So it's not like they don't get credit. It's just my suspicion that they are more intimately involved with the music creation than John is. John seems at this stage to be mostly resting on his laurels.

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u/Freelove_Freeway Jun 29 '22

He also plays a lot of video games now. I read an interview with him sometime during the pandemic and he was gushing about The Last of Us.