Perhaps no other genre of film is more dependent on great music than horror. Think of Jaws without John Williams. Think Psycho without Bernard Herrmann. Imagine The Exorcist without Tubular Bells. In the last 40 years no one has had a bigger impact in genre filmmaking than John Carpenter, and one of the distinguishing characteristics of his films are the scores, many written and performed by the Master of Horror himself. Thursday night at Terminal 5 on the west side of Manhattan; with Christine, the sleek red Plymouth Fury, parked outside, fans packed in to watch and listen to the acclaimed horror director perform themes off his new album Anthology: Movie Themes (1974-1998).

One of the highlights of NY Wintercon 2016 at Resorts World Casino in Queens last weekend were, in fact, the queens themselves — the scream queens, that is. The convention honored and celebrated the best in science fiction and fantasy and amongst the guests was the Queen of Horror and a legend in the business, Adrienne Barbeau. Barbeau has spent the better part of 40 years in TV and films and many of those years were spent in the horror and sci-fi genre in classics like The Fog, Escape From New York, Swamp Thing, and Creepshow. I caught up with her at her at the convention, where I was able to snag a short interview one with my favorite scream queens.

BOOM! Studios has announced that we’ll soon see a crossover of two of their ongoing comic book series: Big Trouble In Little China and Escape From New York.

The comics company will release the 6-issue limited crossover miniseries, which will see Little China‘s Jack Burton meets Escape‘s Snake Plissken, this October.

Check out the covers for issue #1, with art by Daniel Bayliss, here below.

Below you’ll find the solicitations information and cover artwork for all of BOOM! Studios comic book titles that were released on April 27, 2016. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to read them all yet. Take a look below and see what strikes you as a must read!

Below you’ll find the solicitations information and cover artwork for all of BOOM! Studios comic book titles that were released on November 18, 2015. The big ones here are the Six-Gun Gorilla trade and the Lumberjanes collection. Both of these are remarkable and are must-haves for the discerning collector!

Escape from New York
Blu-ray (Collector’s Edition)
Director: John Carpenter
Screenwriter: John Carpenter, Nick Castle
Cast: Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau, Tom Atkins, Charles Cyphers, Ox Baker
Scream Factory
Rated R | 98 Minutes
Release Date: April 21, 2015

“Call me Snake…”

Co-written and directed by John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing), 1981’s Escape from New York is set in a then near-future 1997, in a crime-ridden United States that has transformed Manhattan into a maximum security prison.

Synopsis: In a world ravaged by crime, the entire island of Manhattan has been converted into a walled prison where brutal prisoners roam. But when the US president (Donald Pleasence) crash-lands inside, only one man can bring him back: notorious outlaw and former Special Forces war hero Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell). But time is short. In 24 hours, an explosive device implanted in his neck will end Snake’s mission – and his life – unless he succeeds!

Greetings and thank you for taking the time to read the first post-Oscar edition of The Digital Wire. I hope this finds you well and the big winner of your office’s Academy Awards pool. Now we only have less than two months before the MTV Movie Awards air. I hear Amy Schumer is hosting this year.

Below you’ll find info on several future home video releases complete with technical specs, release dates, and links to pre-order at Amazon, as well as a list of titles coming out this week.

20th Century Fox has picked up the rights to remake the 1981 John Carpenter-directed cult classic Escape From New York, according to Deadline, who had the exclusive on the news.

Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman’s The Picture Company will produce the remake, with Carpenter serving as executive producer who will “exert creative influence over the project.”

The original took place in a dystopian future (in 1997!) where Manhattan has become a maximum security prison, which Kurt Russell’s eye-patch-wearing badass Snake Plissken must breach in order to save the President of the United States, who’s captive there after Air Force One crashes on the island.

Way back in 2011, New Line dropped plans for a remake of the cult classic, Escape From New York. Since then, producer Joel Silver has had his eye on the 1981 property directed by John Carpenter and starring Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken, but there hasn’t been much movement on it for a while.

Now, Starlog is reporting that Silver and his Silver Pictures already has a shortlist of actors they want to star as Plissken, including Sons Of Anarchy‘s Charlie Hunnam, The Walking Dead‘s Jon Bernthal, and The Guest‘s Dan Stevens, according to their unnamed inside sources.

A week ago I wrote a retrospective article on the 25th anniversary of “Weird Al” Yankovic‘s supremely silly cult classic UHF and ended it with these words:

I automatically assumed at the time that Shout! would pick up the license to release UHF on Blu-ray because it’s an MGM title and they typically distribute that studio’s lesser-loved catalog entries. Plus this year would be the most appropriate time for a UHF Blu because the movie celebrates its silver anniversary in 2014 and anniversaries always look good on a Blu-ray/DVD cover. But I had no idea that when Shout! announced its upcoming home video release slate over the weekend at the San Diego Comic-Con they would be including a new 25th anniversary edition of UHF among some of their better-known titles.