Jamie Lee Curtis upped expectations for the newest Halloween film Friday on Twitter, announcing that she will reprise her original role in the upcoming film — and including a picture of herself on the cabin porch with Mike Myers lurking in the background, knife in hand. https://twitter.com/jamieleecurtis/status/908760232016322560
Curtis, who is an avid video game fan and occasional cosplayer, had her big-screen debut as Laurie Stroud in the original 1978 version of Halloween, directed by Carpenter. She has appeared occasionally in numerous Halloween films over the ensuing decades, including Halloween II (1981), Halloween H20 (1998), and most recently Halloween: Resurrection (2002). Her character was actually killed off in Resurrection, so it’s unclear how the filmmakers intend to bring her back.
The new Halloween movie has been in the works for quite a while, and John Carpenter’s announcement back in May 2016 that he would be an executive producer for the newest installment of the franchise has only gotten fans more intrigued. Joining Carpenter on the project are writers Danny McBride and David Gordon Green (Eastbound & Down) and produced by Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions (Get Out, The Purge). There’s also a new score in the works, with Carpenter teasing on a Facebook post that he might do it himself.
On the Empire podcast, McBride emphasized that the new film is not a reboot of the series. He also added that the filmmakers would avoid “turning Michael Myers into some supernatural being that couldn’t be killed.” “I think it’s much more horrifying to be scared by someone standing in the shadows while you’re taking the trash out as opposed to someone who can’t be killed pursuing you,” he said.
The original movie, directed by Carpenter from his own script with an estimated budget of $300,000, was about a masked psychopath who escapes from an insane asylum and stalks and kills teenage babysitters on Halloween night. Since then, the ten Halloween films have grossed nearly $400 million worldwide. Even all these years later, Carpenter is passionate about his new project. “38 years after the original Halloween, I’m going to help to try to make the 10th sequel the scariest of them all,” he said.
The latest Halloween movie (which doesn’t yet have a full title) will be released on October 19, 2018. By the late 1990s, the Halloween franchise was looking about as dead as one of Michael Myers’ victims. It had been a while since the glory days of the original or the sequel, which were released at a time when slasher movies reigned supreme at the box office. Halloween III: Season of the Witch was notable for not following Michael Myers at all, with the filmmakers hoping to turn the Halloween franchise into an anthology series. But critics and audiences weren’t interested in other stories carrying the Halloween name and the movie received negative reviews and low box office returns. Then came the Jamie Lloyd saga in Halloween 4 and 5, which also brought back Michael Myers and his now familiar mode of stalking babysitters and surviving multiple gunshots. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers was initially panned upon release, with many critics saying it wasn’t as strong as the original. However, it made a profit at the box office, bringing in more money than Halloween III. Many retrospective reviews have also been much kinder to the film, with many claiming it’s one of the best in the series. It’s also the movie that gave birth to Scream Queen Danielle Harris, who starred as Michael’s newest target (and niece), Jamie Lloyd.
In 1978, the original Halloween movie launched Jamie Lee Curtis to stardom, thanks to her performance as Laurie Strode. Laurie was one of the original final girls of horror films, and it’s a role that Curtis has revisited several times in the ensuing four decades. But in Halloween Ends, Curtis will finally step away from the part that made her famous. In a new video featurette from the film, Curtis admits that she’s going to miss playing Laurie. She also shows emotion on the set when the crew acknowledges her journey near the end of the shoot.
