This has probably been addressed before, but what would you do if you were asked to submit a treatment for the next proposed installment of the Halloween franchise? Arguably you have three starting point options: Reboot yet again, Pick up where RZ left off, or go back and pick up after Resurrection. What would you do? What is the best choice?
Doing the reboot seems like a bad idea. If RZ had not already done this, I would have hesitation, but would consider rebooting the franchise with something closer in feel to the original. Personally, I am not a fan of the RZ reboot although I do not take issue with those who love his movies. I have grown to like RZH1 over time, but admittedly have not seen the sequel. But rebooting it again feels wrong somehow. So for me, option 1 and option 2 would be off of the table, leaving me with a continuation of the original storyline.
So what story would you write? Maybe pick up with Laurie’s son John years after Resurrection. Unlike his mother who was on the run until the very end, John is obsessed with finding Michael who has disappeared. Every year John returns to Haddonfield waiting for Michael to come back. He’s a psychological mess, drifting from job to job, waiting to confront his mother’s killer His girlfriend has long since moved on. In the town, he has become a point of derision and is not welcome. He spends his time reading through Dr. Loomis’ report and a journal kept by his mother (maybe some voice overs by JLC). He sees a lot of conjecture and speculation about the darkness, but in the end finds no explanation for Michael. Maybe he simply is the Boogeyman. But no one has seen Michael for years and nobody wants to revisit that aspect of the town history.
Now its Halloween and the police stumble across a couple of teenagers found murdered in a secluded spot in town. John thinks it might be Michael, but the police quickly identify John as a person of interest. After another murder victim is found, there seems to be a connection between John and the victims. The police take him into custody and question him, until Molly shows up and the police release him into her custody. People in the town start calling him a murderer. Even John starts to think he may be the new Halloween killer. But is he? Or is Michael back? In the end, of course, it has to be Michael. It wouldn’t be a good Halloween movie if the Shape turned out to be John under the mask. Then leave a good open ended resolution so the next movie doesn’t have to rewrite it.
I dunno. Just my thoughts as I sit here. What would you do? Cue the music……
I feel like it’s wayyy too late to head back to Resurrection.
My vote goes either to adapting Dennis Etchison’s unused script for Rob Zombie’s universe (I really just want to read it ), or adapting Nightdance maybe.
If there is another reboot, I hope the origin scenes are short and sweet, and that the movie gets back to basics quickly. Focus on stalking babysitters, etc.
I’d leave it be like John Carpenter says in The Inside Story
I suppose that would be option 4. I simply make an (un)educated guess that the powers that be, sensing the need for an easy cash flow, will eventually greenlight another HalloweeN movie. My suggestion was nothing more than stream-of-consciousness stuff. Curious what others would want IF another movie was to come out.
I wrote a script (since early 1997 and onward) that continues on the storyline of Jamie Lloyd’s son, Stephen. It takes place in a new town somewhere in Connecticut where Halloween is a big festivity.
It begins after RESURRECTION, but takes place in 2005. For three years after the MYERS HOUSE massacre in Haddonfield, The Shape has not been seen or heard from since. But on a dark and stormy rainy night in the town of DUNCANVILLE, a mysterious assailant (you know who!) breaks into the Town Hall of Records, kills two bystanders, and steals a mysterious file with one name on it: LOOMIS. This introduces one of the main characters, DR. ANDREW LOOMIS, son of SAM LOOMIS, whose a former FBI-profiler now a local-psychologist and once his father’s assistant at RIDGEMONT SANITARIUM, which serves as a pivotal story point in connection to HALLOWEEN 4. Loomis gets a call about a document pertaining to his name and his father’s. Curious over this document, he follows leads to the town of WESTMORELAND, CONNECTICUT.
WESTMORELAND, CONNECTICUT, Halloween 2005; The story follows up on the SUMMERS FAMILY; PARENTS: Thomas & Kara Summers. CHILDREN: Danny Summers & Stephen Summers. Yep. Tommy Doyle and Kara Strode are married for six years after struggling to provide a home and safe environment for their now legally-adopted son, Stephen. They’ve gone through Family Protective Relocation in order to protect their family from the events of HADDONFIELD and “other” obstacles. Stephen is like any typical 10-year old kid, except the fact that he has NIGHTMARES that occur every so often on the OCTOBER month. Now his nightmares have gotten worse and more traumatic. The Summers Family also includes Kara’s cousin, LAURA, whose stayed with the family since their relocation and also due to personal family affairs. LAURA is our new heroine for the story as well. Tommy is a Deputy Sergeant for the local police force, which is pivotal to this story. Kara is leaving town for a job assignment, leaving Laura to babysit Stephen for the annual HALLOWEEN TOWN FAIR.
But as we all know how the series goes, nothing in this safe and friendly environment lasts…when THE SHAPE finally arrives. Throughout the night, MICHAEL MYERS continues to stalk, murder, and destroy anything & anyone in his relentless pursuit for his target. And also some family secrets from Laurie Strode’s storyline are revealed that expose another ulterior motive to the Shape’s true objective…
Nightdance adaptation or a straight up reboot. Zombie’s story concluded in the best possible way, I have no interest in continuing from Resurrection, and I definitely don’t have any interest in bringing the Thorn storyline back in any way, shape or form.
I am working on a story (back to the drawing board AGAIN, though,) or…“series-revision,” rather. I don’t wanna launch into it. But, I will say that it might piss a lot of people off right from the start…& that’s fine, but it’s a “fresh” take on an idea that’s already been tossed around & praised by myself & others a few times
Go back to the 1-6 series, create a new entry that both references that it’s a sequel, but doesn’t rely so much on continuity references that it would turn casual viewers off (many of the Hutchinson comics are similar this way).
While having central characters and a central plot thread it would really be about Halloween in the town of Haddonfield and the boogeyman that has haunted the town for years; it’s a bit difficult to describe in a very brief summary but think of how Trick R’ Treat was essentially about a town on Halloween and the people that live within the town and how everything connected. I had this idea YEARS before Trick R’ Treat and it wouldn’t feel like an anthology film like that film was; but I always liked how the original followed Laurie, Tommy, and Dr. Loomis as they were the first to see The Shape on Halloween and Loomis had a personal connection to him/it. As a kid Halloween wasn’t about any one particular place or event but an atmosphere that extended beyond my personal space; and in the Halloween series The Shape is that atmosphere manifested into, well, a shape; The Shape/Michael doesn’t have to be physically present to be present, doesn’t have to be talked about to be felt, he/it is Halloween, is the boogeyman. It’s really difficult to describe in short form.
I always liked how the original was so ambiguous, Michael’s last name was never actually mentioned until the credits, we just assumed Judith was his sister until then; we really knew nothing of The Shape/Michael, just what we saw, and Dr. Loomis’ rants which in the end- surprise surprise- turned out to be true. Ambiguity and mystery and the unknown and that fear of the dark is so important and the sequels hurt that aspect with the central lore, I’d love to bring it back in full force, even correct the continuity so that what we thought we knew from the sequels isn’t/may not be true while not erasing what they did and disrespecting films I love.
I actually have a few notebooks full of ideas, nightmares and daymares written out, etc., if I ever become rich enough this is something I know I’d do with my money.
), or adapting Nightdance maybe.
And also some family secrets from Laurie Strode’s storyline are revealed that expose another ulterior motive to the Shape’s true objective… 
