Why Jamie Lee Curtis Had To Return For The Halloween Reboot

I think it’s fair to say that there’s a sense of cautious optimism slowly building around David Gordon Green and Danny McBride’s new take on the iconic Halloween. Said to be a reboot/direct sequel to the second film in the franchise (plot details are still scarce, so the exact shape it’ll take is currently unknown), everything we’ve heard about it so far has sounded quite promising and perhaps the most exciting update to arise is that Jamie Lee Curtis will be returning to the role of Laurie Strode.

Admittedly, it was an announcement that took almost everyone by surprise, but it was very welcome news and now, in an interview with Metro, Green’s explained why he just had to have the actress in his film. To put it simply, it’s because no one else can play the character.

“Because she is Laurie Strode (laughs). Right? I don’t know who else is going to play her? She’s just really lovely, and lives and works outside the Hollywood norm. And I love her spirit. And her character is iconic.”

Further on in his chat with the outlet, he explains what drew him to the project in the first place, saying:

“I was never allowed to see it. I was forbidden from watching ‘Halloween’ and ‘Revenge Of The Nerds.’ I snuck watching both of them, and I got such bad dreams that I confessed it. For me it is a chance for me to confront my childhood fears, and give Michael Myers a proper talking to.”

Jamie Lee Curtis aside, there’s something else about this reboot which has us quite hopeful, and that’s Green and McBride’s plan to go back to basics. In a separate interview, the latter revealed the following about the approach they’re taking, saying:

“Look at where the Halloween franchise has gone. There’s a lot of room for improvement. David and I are coming from it as, we are horror fans, and we are humongous fans of John Carpenter and of what he did with the original Halloween, so I think from watching this and being disappointed by other versions of this series, I think we’re just trying to strip it down and just take it back to what was so good about the original. It was just very simple and just achieved that level of horror that wasn’t corny and it wasn’t turning Michael Myers into some supernatural being that couldn’t be killed. That stuff to me isn’t scary. I want to be scared by something that I really think could happen.”

Halloween is set to slash its way into theatres on October 19th, 2018 – a release date which producer Jason Blum swears by.