Any Halloween fan will tell you that, as far as Michael Myers goes, one thing is for certain – the guy doesn’t stay dead for long. Dimension Films is actively plotting the fearsome killer’s latest return to the big screen, and in order to get the ball rolling on what one source called a franchise “recalibration,” the studio has hired Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, the screenwriting duo behind multiple Saw movies, to pen the script.
Franchise mainstay Malek Akkad, who has been producing Halloween movies since the 2007 reboot but involved since the mid-1990s, is producing alongside Matt Stein. Akkad is the son of original executive producer Moustapha Akkad.
It’s still unclear what role this new Halloween entry will play in deciding the future of the franchise. Dimension obviously understands that some repiloting is in order given how poorly Rob Zombie’s 2007 reboot and 2009 sequel were received by fans, but the term “recalibration” suggests that the studio is reluctant to group Halloween with the burgeoning slate of horror remakes and reboots on the way (including this summer’s Poltergeist and another Friday the 13th).
What becomes of the project’s previous incarnation, by Patrick Lussier (My Bloody Valentine 3-D) and Todd Famer, is yet another unanswered question, though one can hazard a guess that Akkad wasn’t happy with their take and wants Melton and Dunstan to add their own spin.
The two are certainly well-situated to do just that. Melton and Dunstan wrote four of the seven Saw movies (IV through VII), Piranha 3DD and the well-received Collector duology (The Collector and The Collection, both of which Dunstan also directed). Their take on The Outer Limits is currently in development over at MGM, while they’ve also worked on Universal’s God of War and recently sold Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark as a pitch to CBS Films. Racking up credits as fast as they were, it’s no surprise to see the pair climb aboard a franchise as well-known as Halloween.
