While theHalloweenfranchisehas had its ups and downs in the various sequels andRob Zombieremakes over the past 39 years, there’s a bright shining beacon of hope in the series at the moment. News of aHalloweenremake broke earlier this year, withDanny McBrideandDavid Gordon Greenwriting the project and Green directing for Blumhouse producerJason Blum. While the new film has been shrouded in secrecy, there’s a lot to be excited about:Jamie Lee Curtisreprises her role as Laurie Strode;Judy Greerco-stars as Laurie Strode’s daughter; andJohn Carpenteris involved as executive producer, creative consultant, and potentially composer.
Carpenter revealed recently that this newHalloweenmovie—which is currently in production—would be ignoring all the sequels, but declined to reveal much else. Well we now have abitmore clarity courtesy of McBride himself, who nails down the timeline in an interview withYahoo:
“We’re kind of ignoring all the films past the first one. It picks up after the first one, but it’s sort of an alternate reality. It’s as if the firstHalloweenended in a slightly different way.”
This would explain how Laurie Strode is back after being unceremoniously killed off inHalloween: Resurrection. It’ll be interesting to see how central a role Strode is to this new story, and McBride says the whole project has been a dream come true:
“I’m a humongousHalloweenfan, so when David and I got approached about doing this from Blumhouse [the studio behindGet Out], the first thing David and I said was, ‘We’ll come up with a take, but we have to pitch it to [franchise creator John] Carpenter. If he’s not interested, we’re definitely not into making this.’ And [executive producer] Jason Blum was totally on board with that. That’s exactly what he wanted to do anyway. So we came up with our pitch. We pitched to Carpenter, and he was into it, which kind of blew David and me away, but I still think nobody was really talking about Jamie. … I think everyone was kind of on the mindset of it’d be a grab to get her, but no one really knew if we would be able to. So Dave and I just busted our ass on this script to really make that Laurie Strode character something she wouldn’t be able to say no to. When we finished the script, we sent it to her, and she said she was in. So we just flipped out. We were over the moon about her involvement.”
For those worried that the involvement of McBride and Green, who worked together on HBO’sVice Principalsand the feature filmYour Highness, meant they’d be putting a comedic spin on the franchise, don’t. McBride says there was “maybe one joke on the page,” saying the rest of the film is straight up horror. Green is a fantastic and versatile filmmaker, shifting fromPineapple ExpresstoPrince Avalancheto the terrific 2017 releaseStronger, and I can’t wait to see what he and McBride have put together.
