Hot on the heels of the story that Jay posted last weekend about Steve Niles writing John Carpenter’s next film, we have an official announcement about another new movie that John Carpenter will be directing. The two do not appear to be connected.

According to iF Magazine, Carpenter has signed on to direct a movie called Scared Straight, about a group of young offenders who get caught in the middle of a massive prison riot. One of the inmates, a guy named Karl Rix, takes it upon himself to try and protect the kids. Playing Karl Rix will be none other than Nicolas Cage.

Man, what is up with Cage lately? If all these recent casting announcements are to be believed, it seems like he will be starring in about 20 new movies over the next two years! Either way it’s cool that Carpenter is finally making his return to the big screen, and it’s interesting that this is not a horror flick, but rather something more in the vein of Assault in Precinct 13. All I can say is, I just hope this movie is as hilarious as Con-Air was.