John Carpenter, who first made his mark with low-budget shockers like Assault on Precinct 13 before achieving international fame with Halloween in 1978, has wanted to make a Mars movie for nearly two decades. “Throughout our civilized history, Mars has been a symbolic deal to human beings. Mars himself was the god of war, of blood lust, passion, death … all that kind of good stuff that movies are made of.” But for a long time, Carpenter couldn’t find a plot idea for the kind of Mars movie he wanted to make. Finally, about three years ago, an idea started to jell.