John Carpenter Comments On His Return To ‘Halloween’ and Michael Myers
Following Monday’s late night announcement that John Carpenter will return to executive produce the next Halloween movie, we now have a few more details from a super secret press conference that took place with only a few select media outlets.
Among the outlets at this media event, Dread Central reports that Carpenter’s plan is to take the franchise back to its roots, and further reveals that it’s likely Carpenter will also score the new film, and that the targeted release date is in fact October 2017.
After we Tweeted that it was interesting how the press release does not mention the words “Michael” or “Myers”, we were quickly directed to the source article in which Carpenter does confirm that Michael Myers will return, though pretty much nothing else is known at this point.
Before Carpenter spoke, producer Jason Blum stated, “Here he is, the godfather. He’s going to produce, and hopefully score… he drives a hard bargain but I am a good negotiator, so hopefully he is going to score it too. He’s going to godfather us, be involved with this movie creatively, and in the initial few conversations that we’ve had with directors, they’ve felt the same way we did: No one wanted to do this without John. So we are real excited he’s here. He is the main attraction and the main event.”
After he was introduced, Carpenter said, “So… I decided, after bitching for years and years about Halloween sequels, I would come aboard and shepherd this thing. I’ll help, support the director, and since I’m here with Malek Akkad, and the horror superstar Jason Blum, what could go wrong? So, we’re going to give it a try.”
When asked if the new movie would be a new story, a remake, prequel, or sequel, Carpenter answered, “We can’t tell you yet… because we don’t know. …You know what? We’re probably going to go back to the original tradition that we started. It’s kind of gone astray. I feel like the remakes maybe went off somewhere that I didn’t want them to go.”
Carpenter then spoke briefly about The Shape, stating, “Michael Myers is not a character. He is a force of nature. He is not a person. He’s part supernatural, part human. He’s like the wind, an evil wind. If you start straying away from that, and you get into explaining, then you’ve lost. So hopefully we can guide it back in the original direction.”
Carpenter added that his son Cody will work with him, if he does do the score for this new Halloween movie.
You can read Dread Central’s full account of this unexpected press conference here, and you can read the full official press release below!
John Carpenter, the multiple award-winning and legendary filmmaker and creator of the original Halloween films, will return to the franchise as executive producer on a new production of the iconic horror movie, it was jointly announced today by MIRAMAX® and Trancas International Films — MIRAMAX® and Blumhouse Productions will co-finance development and production, with Malek Akkad serving as producer under his Trancas banner and Jason Blum producing for Blumhouse. MIRAMAX®, which holds worldwide distribution rights, will determine its theatrical distribution partner at a future date.
The HALLOWEEN film franchise that was started in part by Carpenter and Moustapha Akkad in 1978 has spawned ten films generating a total of nearly $400 million in worldwide box office.
John Carpenter said: “38 years after the original Halloween I’m going to help to try to make the 10th sequel the scariest of them all.”
Malek Akkad said: “Trancas International is thrilled to be teaming up with Miramax on Halloween, one of the most enduring horror franchises in film. We are also very excited to be working with Jason Blum and the whole team at Blumhouse. Together, along with the return of legendary filmmaker John Carpenter, we are eager to make a film that will be a milestone in the franchise’s legacy and that will excite the fans, young and old.”
Zanne Devine, MIRAMAX’s EVP Film & Television, said: “Malek Akkad’s legacy with the Halloween franchise accompanied by Blumhouse’s unprecedented talent in the horror genre lays the foundation of a formidable team to create the next chapter of this iconic fan favorite. Having John Carpenter godfather the reboot of the iconic franchise he helped create brings it full circle. We couldn’t be in better company bringing Halloween back to the big screen.”
Jason Blum said: “Halloween is one of those milestone films that inspired everyone at our company to get into the world of scary movies. The great Malek Akkad and John Carpenter have a special place in the hearts of all genre fans and we are so excited that Miramax brought us together. We cannot wait to find and collaborate with the right filmmaker to give Halloween fans the movie they deserve.”
David Thwaites will oversee the reboot for MIRAMAX® with Carpenter and the companies planning to immediately go out to filmmakers and fast-track the project.
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