Yes, IP matters a ton. But studios are listening to fandoms and realizing that, without the actors who embodied those original characters, they’re holding on to diminished properties.
“Authenticity is the real McCoy. The choices are so vast now from a content perspective,” adds Sony Motion Picture Group president Sanford Panitch. “Why do you want to see a redux when you can see the real thing?”Next up, though, is Universal and Amblin’s. The latest installment in the franchise, which opens June 10 in the U.S., sees Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill and BD Wong reunite for the first time since they appeared in Steven Spielberg’s.
But convincing Curtis to return to a franchise she’d grown frustrated with wasn’t easy. “When I first called Jamie’s agent, they said, ‘don’t even bother. She’s not going do this ever again,’” recalls Blumhouse founder and uberproducer Jason Blum, who partnered with Halloween rights holder Miramax on making a new trilogy. Blum succeeded in settling up a 15-minute meeting with original Halloween filmmaker John Carpenter.
Blum knew Carpenter would attract other top talent. David Gordon Green came aboard to direct and write the script with Danny McBride. “I don’t think David wanted to reinvent a movie that already existed when the original creator of that movie is around, and somehow either against it is not involved,” says Blum. When Curtis learned of Green and Carpenter’s involvement, her resistance fell away. But she’s made it abundantly clear that Halloween Ends is really the end.
“It’s good that the tide has turned toward a reverence of the people who were originally responsible for these amazing movies,” says Blum. “Right? I think it’s dumb to ignore them.”slasher franchise. Installments started trailing off at the box office, but this year, Spyglass and Paramount’s— a direct sequel to the first films — energized fans when packing the cast with legacy actors including Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette.