If the next Friday the 13th shifting to 2017 wasn’t bad enough…
Long-time Halloween producer Malek Akkad has opened up about the delays with the upcoming Halloween sequel, Halloween Returns, proclaiming that it’s all for the good of the film.
Akkad tells Daily Dead, “…there is a bit of a delay with this sequel now.But I do think it is a good thing for the franchise. It’s only going to be resulting in a better film, which I hope the fans appreciate. But this new Halloween isn’t going to be quite what has been announced and what people are expecting, so we’re making some changes there as well.”
When speaking about working with Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, Akkad explained, “We found that we all were very much on the same level of what we wanted to do, in spite of the fact that the studio wasn’t necessarily in agreement. I just felt like I really had partners who would also fight the good fight and fight for the ideas, and fight for the things that we wanted to make sure we got right. And I just think they’re fantastic and super-talented.”
In what is a worrisome but potentially interesting and positive reveal, Akkad opened up about studio troubles with this film. “I have to say, and this is somewhat new news—but unfortunately things happen in Hollywood where you have issues with studios and different variables—we’ve had to take a step back and now we’re trying to refigure this beast that is the new Halloween.”
Halloween Returns is being directed by Dunstan based on a script by him and Melton. They explained that the film will follow the events of the first three Halloween films.
Early plot details for Halloween Returns revealed the following:
Halloween Returns will be a standalone film set to reintroduce audiences to Michael Myers years after his initial rampage. It will pit a new group of Haddonfield youngsters against Myers.
The now 18-year-old child of one of Myers’ victims plays a central role along with the child of a cop whose long been obsessed with Myers’ case, even putting it before his own daughter.
Myers is now on death row and the two kids with their own personal vendettas against the killer sneak in to watch his execution. But when things go awry and Myers escapes, the pair, along with their friends, find themselves in the firing line.
Akkad is the son of Moustapha Akkad, who produced the original Halloween films. Akkad’s father and sister were killed in a suicide bombing in Jordan in 2005.
All of this makes me wonder if Akkad, Dunstan, and Melton have a vision of Michael Myers that is so radically different from what fans know and love that the studios are hesitant to take the risk. That being said, it could simply be a matter of funding that’s holding things up, so you never know until the real story comes out.
It’s also interesting that this comes after the news that a new Friday the 13th film has also been delayed. More on that here.
