Director Marcus Dunstan Reveals His Vision of ‘Halloween Returns’!
Though it is stated early in the recording that most of the interview was lost due to “technical difficulties”, what remains is still pretty great, and I have to admit that I feel better the more I hear and read Dunstan’s comments and intentions regarding the new movie.
When asked about how the Michael Myers mask will look, Dunstan says it has to resemble the classic profile from the Johon Carpenter’s 1978 original Halloween. Of the mask’s reveal, likely in an early teaser trailer, the director cites the recent Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser featuring a familiar yet aged Harrison Ford at the end, stating, “Our goal is to have that Han and Chewie moment.” Later, when asked if he wants to make more sequels after Halloween returns, Dunstan, says, “I want to make The Dark Knight.” He also says he wants the new film to stand on its own, Aliens and The Dark Knight are fully satisfying films in their own right, but still continue a story and set up plenty of others to come.
He also seems to confirm that Gillian Jacobs (Community) could be joining the cast(?)!
Other highlights from the interview:
“Halloween, if you have a semicolon, Returns, I think I put it in an email as a subtitle, but I think it was registered as Halloween Returns, which is fine. I like that, and it works, it does function as what it means to say. But if you commit a violent act, sometimes you get returns. What are the repercussions of being a violent entity? In that case, Halloween Returns could mean a number of things.”
“I hope, I mean ideally, and this is just the fanboy in me talking, there’s some Comic Con or something, and there’s this asterisk in the panel or this untitled movie or something. Then when people don’t know what it is, and a lot of people are like ‘Well, I’m gonna go to the bathroom’, it just hits. And no one sees it coming.”
“The coolest thing we’ve done so far is a couple motion tests of potential Michaels.”
“I want to see a film shot on film. I want it to be one that stands on its own.”
“I really like this actress Gillian Jacobs. She’s known for all this comedy on Community, and yet I didn’t know her from Community first, I knew her from a movie called Gardens of the Night, which is one of the most wrenching dramas, and she’s excellent. I thought, ‘I wonder if this great performer would do that again, would like to go there, and I think so.”
“Embracing social media, I think one of the first key images has got to be that carefully set up Instagram photo of the mask in profile with that border edge lighting, so you know right away what the intent is. If it looks anything at all disparaging to anybody, than we’ve failed. Our goal is really to have that Han and Chewie moment.”
“We went back to the original screenplay too and just read it, John Carpenter’s draft, and timed it with watching the movie, and line for line it keeps the same clock as watching the movie, so if you’re reading the pages, it’s almost like a shot list.”
“Suspense isn’t expensive. A karate fight in a burning room is expensive.”
“Michael Myers is subtlety and suspense.”
You can hear lots more good stuff in the two videos below, and then please sound off in the comments!
As I said, these comments, along with recent Tweets, have me more excited than ever that Marcus Dunstan is in fact the right choice to bring Halloween and Michael Myers back to the big screen. What do you think? Does hearing Marcus talk about the film change your opinion at all?
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| Marcus Dunstan |
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| Gillian Jacobs |
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