Green and McBride Talk ‘Halloween Kills’ and ‘Ends’; Filming in September

Writer and director David Gordon Green and his co-writer Danny McBride are currently on the press circuit this week promoting their new HBO series, but they also recently answered a few questions about the upcoming sequels Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, confirming that filming will begin in September.

In an interview with Collider to promote The Righteous Gemstones, which premieres on HBO on Aug. 18, Green says that filming of the Halloween 2018 sequels is scheduled to begin after Labor Day.

Green says, “We start in September [and shoot them back-to-back] with a breather between.”

McBride also confirms what had been rumored last year, that the plot for Halloween Ends was always in their minds even before finishing 2018’s Halloween. “That was our plan,” says McBride. “Relaunching it for just one, we wanted it to have a bigger story. We were originally going to even shoot them back to back, but as soon as we got it up and running, we took a look at ourselves and were like, ‘You know what? We should make sure we can do one of them good, before we bite off trying to do three of them.’ So, we just put all of our efforts into trying to make the first one land. There was talk, right away, of us doing more of these. We just needed to get everybody aligned and see if everybody was down with the vision. Luckily, everyone is.”

Green adds that the material they incorporated into the next two sequels includes ideas they originally had for a sequel, as well as additional ideas that did not make it into Halloween 2018. He also confirms that both scripts and done and “we’re ready to go.”

Hinting at what we can expect in the sequels, McBride states, “It’s just a continuation of it. It’s this world that we’ve established, and then it continues beyond the events of the first one.”

On whether or not Halloween Ends will be the actual end of the franchise, McBrides says, “I think, ultimately, Michael Myers is such an iconic character that no one besides Carpenter is ever gonna have ownership over him. This will be our chance at the table to play with these characters, and I’m sure that, when we’re done, other people will come in and do the same thing, or have their own reinvention. Michael Myers is iconic enough to allow that, too. He’s like James Bond, where you can have different actors and different filmmakers. He represents something so simple and scary that he can be translated by lots of different people.”

Green adds, “They’re never done telling the Frankenstein story, and at this point, Michael Myers is a classic movie monster. But our Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode/Michael Myers saga will be done.”

You can read the full interview here.

The saga of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode isn’t over, as John Carpenter officially announced on July 19 that Halloween Kills is coming in October 2020, to be followed by Halloween Ends in October 2021.

As we previously reported, the Halloween sequels will be filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Halloween Kills, is set for theatrical release on Friday, October 16th, 2020, with David Gordon Green returning to direct from a script he co-wrote with returning collaborator Danny McBride and newcomer Scott Teems.

Halloween Ends, intended as the finale of the saga, will be released on Friday, October 15th, 2021. Green will direct as well, from a script he co-wrote with McBride and writers new to the series, Paul Brad Logan, and Chris Bernier.

Based on characters created by series originator John Carpenter and Debra Hill, Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends will be produced by Malek Akkad, Jason Blum, and Bill Block. Green, McBride, Carpenter, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jeanette Volturno, Couper Samuelson, and Ryan Freimann will serve as executive producers, with Ryan Turek overseeing both projects for Blumhouse.

Judy Greer, Andi Matichak are also expected to reprise their respective roles as Laurie’s daughter and granddaughter, and we fully expect James Jude Courtney and Nick Castle to continue their collaboration in portraying Michael Myers in the new films.

You can watch the official announcement video below.

 

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