The HALLOWEEN franchise has been stuck in development hell for the better part of a decade… which seems odd to say, because it doesn't feel like it has already been ten years since the release of Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN remake or eight years since Zombie's HALLOWEEN II, but that is the reality. Dimension Films very nearly rushed a HALLOWEEN III into production that would have been released in 2010, the DRIVE ANGRY team of writer Todd Farmer and director Patrick Lussier were attached, a script was written, the movie was going to be in 3D, but then the project fell apart before cameras started rolling. Back in 2015, the writing team of Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton were hired to craft a film titled HALLOWEEN RETURNS, which Dunstan was going to direct. Again a script was written, again the project fell apart.
The rights to HALLOWEEN have since been passed from Dimension, the studio that had been releasing the films since HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS, to Blumhouse Productions, and things are looking promising for the property there. Just yesterday, we heard from director David Gordon Green that HALLOWEEN creator John Carpenter, who will be executive producing the new film, digs the screenplay that has been written by Green and Danny McBride, and that Carpenter wants to compose the score.
Now producer Jason Blum is showing so much confidence that the movie will be ready for its scheduled October 19th, 2018 release date that he's even betting his body parts, and his life, that it will reach theatres on time.
Speaking with TheWrap, who referred to him as "the prince of horror", Blum said that if the new HALLOWEEN film isn't released next October,
You can kill me. You can behead me. You can chop my hand off, the prince of horror, you can cut my hand off. That’s on the record."
Well, if Blum is willing to risk his hand and his head over this, I'm not going to doubt him. I'm going to start counting on the fact that I will be watching a new HALLOWEEN movie in the theatre in just thirteen months.
Details on this film are being kept under wraps, but McBride has said,
It’s not a reboot, it’s not gonna be a rehash. It’s a continuation of Michael Myers – where we’re choosing to continue it from, you’ll have to see when the movie comes out."