Last year we brought you news that legendary director John Carpenter and king of crazy haircuts Nicolas Cage were teaming up to make the prison action film Riot (which was also known as Scared Straight).

I recently interviewed the producer of the film Katie Chonacas who gave me the disappointing news that it looks like the film is dead.

The original synopsis of the film was as follows:

Director and horror icon, John Carpenter, is finally back behind the camera where he rightfully belongs, filming his next horror/thriller film The Ward. It’s been a long drought for fans of his Carpenter’s stylings; the last film he directed was 2001 sci-fi horror flop film Ghosts of Mars (still scratching my head as to why he went with Ice Cube for the lead). If you want to go back to his last GOOD horror film, then you’ll need to reach back a few more years to 1998 and the fantastic movie Vampires with the ever popular James Woods.

The Ward has a fairly interesting female cast with Amber Heard (Zombieland), Danielle Panabaker (The Crazies), Lyndsy Fonseca (Kick Ass, Hot Tub Time Machine) and newcomer Sali Sayler all confined to a psychiatric hospital where Heard has just been committed. Fringe guest-star Jared Harris rounds out the cast as Dr. Stringer, who most likely is the cause of much mental and physical anguish in The Ward. While there, Kristen (Heard) meets other girls in the ward who have their own sets of problems and eventually discovers a mysterious girl who haunts the halls while everyone sleeps.

It’s time for another Mid Week Movie News Wrap Up.

This week:

John Carpenter chooses yet another project; Clooney and Sorkin like a good Challenge; Bill Murray decides to Get Low; Bloom and Kurylenko get Cross and Nottingham wants an accountant.