CADILLAC ROCK

After director John Carpenter wrote the title song for his new movie, “Big Trouble in Little China,” he realized he needed a special kind of singer. So he picked a personal favorite--himself.

He croons two tunes and even formed a band, the Coupe de Villes. It includes two other directors, Nick (“The Last Starfighter”) Castle and Tommy Lee (“Halloween III”) Wallace. They’re scheduled to perform in a video this weekend, which should debut on MTV early next month, prior to the July 2 opening.

“The music has a real rock feel, with a lot of synthesizers and guitars, though it doesn’t take itself that seriously,” said Carpenter, 38, who played with Wallace in a high school band called Kaleidoscope. “The way I look at it--no one’s ever too old to rock ‘n’ roll. We all played together when we were in film school. Then everyone decided to go into movies. But we’ve occasionally revived the band, mostly at wrap parties. We even had one of our songs playing on a car radio in a scene in ‘Halloween.’ ”