With the original Dead Space getting a remake and director John Carpenter once again talking about making it into a film, could it be that we’re actually going to get a Dead Space movie? Is a Dead Space movie happening?
A Dead Space Movie Is Very Unlikely to Be Happening Soon: Here’s Why
It’s true that John Carpenter, of Halloween, The Thing, and Body Bags fame, has expressed a desire to make a Dead Space film. However, as Carpenter explained in a January 2023 Variety interview, it was really just an offhand remark that appears to have taken on a life of its own. So John Carpenter is not making a movie out of the game, though he’s a fan of the games.
However, in the same interview, Carpenter stated, “I think they already have another director involved,” for a movie adaptation. So is that confirmation that a Dead Space movie is happening? Again, no. Firstly, “I think” isn’t exactly concrete proof.
Secondly, if there is a Dead Space movie in development, and a director has been spoken to, that’s still not a guarantee it’s happening. The idea may have been mooted, but that’s likely all. Even if a studio has purchased the rights, a film may never get made. Take The Last of Us for example, which is now an HBO series — that was originally going to be a movie.
Yes, on reflection it’s hard to see how the first game could possibly be squeezed into a single movie, but that’s what the studio was going for. The Last of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann, who is also a major creative force on the HBO series, said this about the movie, way back in 2016: “(W)e had a table read, got the script to a good place and it kind of entered development hell like these things tend to do. There hasn’t been any work done on it in over a year and a half.”
The movie remained in development hell until it finally transformed into the TV series we know now. So a movie can falter at any stage. Besides which, given how quickly rumors spread over the internet, if a Dead Space movie were even in preproduction, one would expect some leaks to come out about it.
Unlike with The Last of Us, we can see a Dead Space film fitting into a two-hour slot. And we’d hope that, if it ever got made, it would use practical effects. However, on the question of if a Dead Space movie is happening, right now the answer is likely no.
