The world has changed a lot since 9/11. For one thing, John Carpenter hasn’t had a movie in theaters since then; Ghosts of Mars came out on August 24th, 2001. He directed two episodes of Masters of Horror, but otherwise the 21st century has not been Carpenter’s most prolific time.

That may be changing. After lots of hemming and hawing and playing video games and watching basketball, John Carpenter is back behind the camera on a feature film. RIGHT NOW. Filming on The Ward, which had been delayed since March, started this week.

The film stars Amber Heard as a girl who has been committed to a mental hospital, where she is terrorized by a ghost. Danielle Panabaker co-stars as another, also hot inmate.

Will the film be any good? I don’t know, but it’s heartening to have John back on a feature set. Maybe this will remind him why he started doing this job in the first place, and maybe this film will get money rolling in for other features that he has in the planning stages, like Riot.