Ghosts of Mars

John Carpenter stated that after making this film he felt burned out and decided to leave Hollywood entirely. Nine years later he directed the feature film The Ward (2010).

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The film was shot entirely at night.

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Most of the location shooting took place in a gypsum mine near Albuquerque, New Mexico. Biodegradable red food coloring was sprayed onto the nearly pure white gypsum to give it the look of the Martian landscape.

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At the 53rd minute, Natasha Henstridge recalled hating shooting the scene in which the entire cast runs to the train platform, because Carpenter made them do it dozens of times.

CHARACTERS & CAST · SOURCED

Jason Statham was originally hired to play James "Desolation" Williams, but Ice Cube took his place for star power.

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The prosthetics worn by the main villain were quite large for his mouth, which caused most of the "ghost-speak" to contain only the vowel "a".

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Natasha Henstridge replaced Courtney Love (the original choice) at the last minute. Love left the project after her boyfriend's ex-wife ran over her foot in her car during film training. Michelle Yeoh, Franka Potente and Famke Janssen were briefly considered. Henstridge was suggested by her then-boyfriend Liam Waite and was able to join the cast only a week before production began. The actress found the experience very distressing because of the role's heavy physical nature and the difficult working conditions.

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One of Carpenter's reasons for building the film around a matriarchal structure was that he did not want female action heroes to have to prove themselves before people take them seriously.

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John Carpenter's original script had the action play out in a more conventional, linear style, but he felt this was too familiar and changed it with flashbacks.

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For the film's music, music producer Bruce Robb brought in the famous heavy metal band Anthrax to play on the images of director John Carpenter, who had first shot the film while listening to Metallica. The film's music is entirely original and was recorded by Robb at Cherokee Studios in Hollywood. The film's DVD offers a bonus feature with behind-the-scenes footage shot in the studio with the musicians, Carpenter and Robb.

BEHIND THE SCENES · SOURCED

When Natasha Henstridge fell ill from exhaustion, they had to halt production for a week. Director John Carpenter suggested it might have been caused by shooting in a gypsum mine, but Henstridge believes the culprit was that she had made two films back to back and then joined this one without a break.

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Carpenter likes that both Ice Cube and Natasha Henstridge add a small touch to the final frame; Cube looks directly into the camera as he passes, and Henstridge nods as she raises her gun.

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Director and composer John Carpenter asked various rock musicians to help him raise his own score for the film's music. These included members of Anthrax, Steve Vai, Guns N' Roses guitarists Buckethead and Robin Finck, and Elliot Easton (former member of The Cars).

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The narrator in the fragment is Keith David, who played supporting roles in John Carpenter's "The Thing (1982)" and "They Live (1988)."

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One of the severed heads resembles effects artist Greg Nicotero.

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Natasha Henstridge describes herself as an "intuitive-based" actress, and John Carpenter agrees, adding that Kurt Russell is the same way.

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John Carpenter and Natasha Henstridge recalled that he was stubborn about certain aspects of her performance in the train scene and that for some reason it bothered her at the time, and then it turned into an argument.

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This film contains Jason Statham's first on-screen kiss.

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The film is regarded as a futuristic remake of John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 (1976).

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Natasha Henstridge recalled being out of breath and losing her form during the production, and John Carpenter added that he was told she refused to work with the stunt coordinator.

BEHIND THE SCENES · SOURCED

In the scene where "Big Daddy Mars" is set on fire, he appears to be wearing a Michael Myers mask (also a John Carpenter signature).

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During Ballard's visions of being taken over, the original form of the Martians resembles sharks, with gray skin, black eyes and sharp teeth. The visions also show that Mars's surface once held a great deal of water. If they evolved from a predatory species, this could explain why these Martians are so aggressive. As Mars gradually dried out over time, they would have had to adapt and fall back on old survival habits, fighting over resources and eventually seeking some kind of refuge underground.

DEEPER MEANING · SOURCED

In a 2006 interview, Ice Cube nominated this as the worst film he has appeared in, saying it was "unwatchable in many ways. John Carpenter really let us down with the special effects in this one - it looked like it came out of a 1979 movie."

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The film is set in the year 2176.

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The shotgun in Commander Braddock's hands is a Franchi SPAS 12.

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In the first draft the script was written as a semi-musical. The idea was for Ice Cube to rap during flashback/showcase sequences featuring Ghosts of Mars largely as a dance group. The idea was dropped when Carpenter discovered that Ice was a better actor than rapper.

PRODUCTION STORY · SOURCED

The rifle carried by Jericho Butler is a G36.

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Funnily enough, they look a lot like the "Reavers" from the film Serenity.

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The shotgun carried by Melanie Ballard is a modified Saiga 12.

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Ice Cube and Lobo Sebastian appeared in a film the previous year: Next Friday (2000).

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Clea DuVall appeared in The Grudge (2004) and Joanna Cassidy appeared in The Grudge 2 (2006).

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