John Carpenter would still like to make a Dead Space film

(Image credit: Electronic Arts)

Legendary film director John Carpenter has reiterated his desire to make a Dead Space movie. Speaking to the A.V. Club, Carpenter discussed adapting EA's horror series after being asked if there were any games he'd considered turning into films.

"The only one I can think of, and I've mentioned it before is Dead Space," Carpenter said to the A.V. Club's William Hughes. "That would make a real great movie. I could do that."

As Carpenter's statement implies, this isn't the first time the director has talked about making a Dead Space film. He previously mentioned the idea to Game Informer back in 2013, stating "Dead Space would just make a great movie, because you have these people coming onto an abandoned, shut-down space-ship and they have to start it up and something's on board. It's all just great stuff." A keen gamer in general, Carpenter is a big fan of Visceral Games' sci-fi horror trilogy. When asked by the A.V. club which Dead Space game was his favourite, the director replied. "Well, any of them were really good. I even like the last one, the action one nobody else liked."

Carpenter hasn't directed a feature film since 2010's The Ward, explaining to Collider in 2019 that he "got burned out". But he has more recently talked about getting back into filmmaking. A Dead Space movie would be a fitting comeback, given how the series is itself partly inspired by Carpenter's work on the Thing, particularly with regard to the game's hostile, mutating Necromorphs.

Alongside enthusing about Dead Space, Carpenter also discussed the games he's been playing this year, stating he got "hooked" on Fallout 76. "I know it had bugs coming out, and a lot of it was put down, but I thought it was great." He pointed to the games large-open world to "roam around" in as a major factor in its appeal. "That's what I love about Fallout. There is a template to follow. There are missions, but you can do it differently. And they keep coming up with new missions every once in a while, and new ideas. It's good. It's really interesting."

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.