Miramax wins Halloween TV rights, plans some kind of “cinematic universe”
Not even a year after Halloween Ends, Miramax plans to make Halloween a TV series
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God, where’s Dr. Loomis when you need him? Donald Pleasence has been dead for quite some time, but Hollywood really needs a harried expert in the field of evil to barge into various rooms in a panic and yell about how everyone’s underestimating Michael Myers and they’re all doomed—only, in this case, he should be yelling about the Halloween franchise, which is no less dangerous than Michael himself. And yet, not even a year after David Gordon Green released the divisive Halloween Ends, Miramax has landed the TV rights to Halloween and is planning to make a new TV series that could “potentially launch a cinematic universe” with new movies. But it’s evil incarnate! We should kill it and be done with it!
Of course, the problem with Dr. Loomis is that nobody ever listens to Dr. Loomis, so here we are again. This all comes from Deadline, which says Miramax (which was one of the production companies on Green’s reboot trilogy) won after a “tight race” against A24 and Blumhouse (the other big production company on the trilogy) in order to get these TV rights.
We don’t know what Miramax is planning beyond “making a TV show” and “potentially turning that into a movie,” but it all might be a bit concerning for everyone who is tired of the excessive IP-milking that Hollywood has been desperately doing for the last few… centuries. Maybe it wouldn’t feel so “too soon” if they hadn’t just made three movies that were all about going back to the Halloween basics? Or if those movies had been better?
That all being said, this is an opportunity go back to John Carpenter’s original vision and use the Halloween brand not as a way to tell Michael Myers stories but as a way to tell scary stories that just happen to take place on Halloween. Maybe it could be an anthology, with Michael serving as a Cryptkeeper-style host?
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That all being said, this is an opportunity go back to John Carpenter’s original vision and use the Halloween brand not as a way to tell Michael Myers stories but as a way to tell scary stories that just happen to take place on Halloween. Maybe it could be an anthology, with Michael serving as a Cryptkeeper-style host?1. Point of order: It was both John Carpenter and Debra Hill’s idea to refashion Halloween as an anthology series sans Michael Myers.2. Michael being a Cryptkeeper-style host would be a great premise for a comedy show skit (if it hasn’t been done yet) where he just sits there motionless and doesn’t say a single word for a couple of minutes before the episode starts. It’s a horrible idea for an actual show.
“That all being said, this is an opportunity go back to John Carpenter’s original vision and use the Halloween brand not as a way to tell Michael Myers stories but as a way to tell scary stories that just happen to take place on Halloween.”Sure, but you don’t need to be in a tight bidding race for the Halloween franchise to do that. You could just make a Halloween-themed anthology show.
The anthology idea could have worked if they hadn’t made Halloween II as a direct continuation of the first film. Once you establish a pattern, audiences will resist breaking it.
A TV series doesn’t seem like a good vehicle for stories about a slasher with no face and no voice, so the more anthology-ish stuff seems far more likely. To which I say, what was stopping you guys (or anybody who’s been fawning over this “original vision”) over the last forty years when the idea was out there for free and anyone could’ve run with it? It just has to be official, licensed anthology shit with Dr. Loomis references?
It feels like there’s been a recent renewed interest among studios for cinematic universes, even though the past decade saw several failed attempts and the one success story flagging. I thought most of the bigwigs had a moment of clarity on this topic, but maybe it’s like The AV Club continuing to pivot to video years after the whole concept crashed.
Maybe it’ll get Myered in development hell!
No one was asking for a pun, but you just Strode forward and gave us one.