Halloween Series Stalls As Dimension Films Loses Rights
The future of iconic slasher movie series ‘Halloween’ is currently in doubt, as Dimension Films - the genre-based wing of The Weinstein Company (and previously Miramax), who have owned the series for two decades - have now lost the rights.
Bloody Disgusting broke the news that Dimension - who had been developing a new film in the series to be entitled ‘Halloween Returns’ - no longer own the property centred on masked maniac Michael Myers, which will now instead be offered up for sale to other studios.
Director Marcus Dunstan had been set to helm ‘Halloween Returns,’ having also co-written a screenplay with Patrick Melton. This film had originally been set to go into production in July 2015.
Dunstan and Melton are reportedly no longer be involved, and any new film will go back to the drawing board.
‘Halloween’ began with the independently produced 1978 horror classic from director John Carpenter, which proved a huge hit and spawned countless imitators.
Numerous sequels followed - and Dimension picked up the series as of the sixth installment, 1995′s ‘Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.’
Dimension subsequently rebooted the property twice, with 1998′s ‘Halloween H20: 20 Years Later,’ which brought back original star Jamie Lee Curtis and ignored all the sequels beyond 1981′s ‘Halloween II.’ This was followed up by 2002′s ‘Halloween: Resurrection.’
Later the series went back to square one with 2007′s divisive ‘Halloween’ remake, and its even more divisive 2009 sequel ‘Halloween II,’ from director Rob Zombie.
It is believed that ‘Halloween Returns’ would again have been a reboot of sorts, again disregarding all films made after 1981′s ‘Halloween II’ and picking up in the present day.
Malek Akkad, son of original ‘Halloween’ producer Moustapha Akkad, remains attached as producer on the ‘Halloween’ series regardless of which studio ends up buying the rights.
Picture Credits: Dimension/TWC
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