UPDATE—Friday, February 10: Applause to Danny McBride for setting the record straight right away. Less than 24 hours since the news broke about he and David Gordon Green co-writing a new Halloween movie, McBride explained to CinemaBlend the movie they’re making is a sequel, NOT a remake as was previously believed. His full quote as follows:
“You know, it’s not a remake” he said. “It’s actually, it’s gonna continue the story of Michael Myers in a really grounded way. And for our mythology, we’re focusing mainly in the first two movies and what that sets up and then where the story can go from there.”
So, just as Halloween: H20 completely ignored entries 4,5, and 6 in the series, Green and McBride’s take will ignore Halloween: Water (a shame) and Halloween: Resurrection (probably for the best). So, then, will this be the fourth film to ACTUALLY be Halloween 3? (I’m counting Season of the Witch in this count)
Halloween II was a direct continuation of John Carpenter’s 1978 classic and followed the Shape as he tried to finish off Laurie Strode after she’s brought to a hospital. Dr. Loomis followed to finish off his former patient and we got a lot of backstory of Myers, including some interesting Samhain stuff. Will the new movie be set in the ’80s? Will it now take place 40 years after the original and be about a 60-something year old Michael Myers? These are the questions.
See the original story, and John Carpenter’s initial announcement, below!
PREVIOUS:Â If I were a betting man, and had the foresight to put money on who would be rebooting the Halloween franchise for the third time, I’d be a billionaire if I bet on the people who are apparently actually doing it. The odds must have been astronomically against the duo David Gordon Green and Danny McBride taking a stab at Michael Myers’ story, but here we are, and John Carpenter himself is way on board. As relayed by The Tracking Board, Carpenter shared the news on his Facebook page, and heaped praise on the traditionally comedic pair.
So there you have it. Carpenter will be executive producing the movie along with Malek Akkad (whose father Moustapha Akkad produced the original films), Jason Blum of Blumhouse Pictures, and Green and McBride. Green will direct the picture from a script by both him and McBride. Seems strange for the guys behind things like Your Highness and Eastbound & Down to be going into horror? Well, not really; McBride said on an episode of the Nerdist Podcast that he used to write horror scripts all the time before making it big. And Green has directed many great and tough dramas, including All the Real Girls, George Washington, and Joe, which McBride also executive produced.
We’re in a time now where comedians are getting more and more into non-comedic horror, as Jordan Peele‘s Sundance hit Get Out can attest, and a fresh and unique take might be just the thing for the franchise, which hasn’t been riding very high in a good long while. TheRob Zombie reboot from 2007 and its 2009 sequel were certainly a direction to go with the property, but when you explore too much of Michael’s family history, you lose the mystique of the character. If what Carpenter says is what I think he means–“They get it.”–I think we’re going to go back to the Shape well and truly just being a cipher onto which all of our fears and dread can placed. And if they could not do a scene-for-scene remake of the original, that would also be pretty cool.
Possibly the most exciting piece of this news is the prospect of Carpenter tackling the music. He’s been primarily a musician for the past few years, with his Lost Themes albums and a world tour (one of my favorite concerts I’ve ever been to), so to see how he could do new music to a new vision of his classic horror movie something I want in my life.
This new take on Halloween is slated for October 19, 2018.
Are you excited? Are you ready to see the Shape stalk Haddonfield again? Let us know in the comments below!
Image: Trancas
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. He writes the weekly look at weird or obscure films in Schlock & Awe. Follow him on Twitter!
