Pre-production has begun on John Carpenter's latest film, Ghosts of Mars, while shooting is scheduled to begin August 1.

Carpenter wrote the script with Larry Sulkis, who also worked on Carpenter's They Live and Bodybags.

"John is a master of his craft, extremely knowledgeable about film history and technique," Sulkis told British John Carpenter fan Marc Bright. "Yet writing with him, I felt no master-apprentice barrier or hierarchy. He is gracious in hearing criticism and open to others' ideas."

According to Love, the film is set in a dusty frontier mining town on Mars nearly two centuries in the future. She plays "Melanie," whom she described on her personal website as "an interplanetary police squad officer."

The story follows dangerous criminal Desolation Williams (Cube) as Martian police (including Love) transfer him from the small town to a prison in the Martian capitol.

Meanwhile, mining has disturbed the ruins of an ancient Martian civilization, unleashing a ghostly defense system designed to destroy all non-indigenous life on Mars. By the time the interplanetary police arrive to fetch Desolation Williams, only the criminals locked in the cells are alive.

The Martian ghosts are hungry.

Sulkis praised Carpenter's contribution to his script.

"My first draft was a very linear action story," he told Bright. "The plot began at A and roared headlong toward Z. John took that structure and shattered it, then began piecing all its elements back together in a puzzle that withheld secrets and created mysteries."

According to Harry Knowles of online entertainment site Ain't-It-Cool-News, women will dominate the film.

"Courtney's character is a no-nonsense cop, not the head screw, just one of the grunts," Knowles said. "She's been on the job for a while, but keeps being passed over for promotion because . . . well, she isn't a lesbian. In this future, women rule and men are lowly dogs. [Love is] a breeder, which means she'll bear children and sleep with man. But as a result she's treated as a lessor."

Love summed up the role of women in Carpenter's Mars more directly, calling the film "the only girl western I've seen . . . ever."

Movie studio Columbia Screen Gems has not set a release date for the film, although "fall 2000" has been rumored.