Consider yourself warned of spoilers for a fifteen-year-old movie, but there’s something strange about the news that Jamie Lee Curtis will be returning to the Halloween film franchise.
Some of that might have to do with the fact that her character, Laurie Strode, is, you know, dead. She was infamously killed off in the opening minutes of the dreadful Halloween: Resurrection, the eighth film in the original series before it was rebooted.
"Same porch. Same clothes. Same issues. 40 years later. Headed back to Haddonfield one last time for Halloween. Release date 10/19/18." pic.twitter.com/IvptiZctyw
— Jamie Lee Curtis (@jamieleecurtis) September 15, 2017
So what gives?
As you probably guessed, you can play things fast and loose in a movie franchise when you’ve rebooted the timeline.
The newest film will be directed by David Gordon Green and co-written by him and Danny McBride (yes, that Danny McBride). The duo collaborated on HBO’s Eastbound & Down and Green also directed Pineapple Express and Our Brand Is Crisis. Does that foretell a goofier take on the Michael Myers murder-spree? Maybe. But what we do know is that the film is going to diverge from the recent Rob Zombie films that rebooted the franchise.
However, since the film is bringing back Curtis as Laurie, it’s also strongly acknowledging the original franchise, or at least the part of it that existed before Strode was killed. So the film will be something of a sequel-reboot, which sounds like the kind of thing Hollywood would love.
McBride said as much in an interview a few months back:
You know, it’s not a remake. It’s actually, it’s gonna continue the story of Michael Myers in a really grounded way. And for our mythology, we’re focusing mainly in the first two movies and what that sets up and then where the story can go from there.
The ploy is reminiscent of Superman Returns, which was a sequel to the first two Christopher Reeves’ Superman movies but disavowed the existence of Superman 3 & 4.
What we do know about the plot, via a press release, is that it will involve Laurie’s “final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.”
If this film is successful, get ready to see the timelines of some of your other favorite film franchises get ripped apart in the good name of making more money.
[iO9]