Love it, or hate it, a Halloween reboot is being released next year from the minds of Danny McBride and David Gordon Green. Regardless of how you feel about the team involved, or the fact that the film will disregard every Halloween sequel, there is one thing we can (possibly) all agree on: having Jamie Lee Curtis back as Laurie Strode is awesome. So how was she convinced to give the character yet another go? According to Danny McBride (via Yahoo), it all came down to her character being too well-written to refuse:
“We pitched to John 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 [director David Gordon Green] 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.”
McBride also talked a bit about what they are pulling from the first film for this retroactive sequel, and also, the pressure he feels to deliver something worthy of the Halloween name:
“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 first Halloween ended in a slightly different way… I just hope that we don’t fuck it up and piss people off,” said Mcbride. “This is such a diehard fan base. You don’t want horror fans being your enemies because they show up at your house with masks on… We are diehard fans of Halloween… We’re watching all the sequels and where things have taken left turns here and there that maybe bites for fans, and at least trying to deliver what we would have wanted to see. Hopefully that will line up with most fans.”
Lastly, for those worried that the usually-comedic team involved will not be a good fit for the horror genre: “I think you should be very scared. I mean, this isn’t a comedy at all. I think there was, like, maybe one joke on the page, but the rest is straight horror…. So hopefully it gets in people’s heads and keeps them up late at night.”
Honestly, Curtis must be pleased to be able to make things right with Laurie Strode after all the craziness of later Halloween sequels. Regardless of how the film turns out, at least those wrongs will be righted. Right?
The Halloween reboot is set for an October 19th, 2018 release.
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Originally published November 15, 2017. Updated December 18, 2019.
