Jamie Lee Curtis Won't Rule Out A Return To The Halloween Franchise
The ruling maxim of John Carpenter's game-changing slasher masterpiece "Halloween" is "Everyone's entitled to one good scare," but the original Michael Myers survivor will have as many as she pleases.
David Gordon Green's "Halloween" revival trilogy is reaching its terminus with this year's final entry, "Halloween Ends," releasing wide October 14. It's the thirteenth installment of the "Halloween" franchise and the seventh to feature Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her role as Laurie Strode, ever-battling the masked psychopath Michael Myers. Still, Curtis won't say no to further exploration of her character.
The "Knives Out" star had previously sworn off the franchise after serving her term from 1978 to "Halloween: Resurrection" in 2001, when her Laurie was killed off in the most insulting termination of a legacy character the genre would see until "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Speaking to SFX Magazine, Curtis describes the person that convinced her to return: her godson, "Ambulance" star Jake Gyllenhaal. In 2017, Gyllenhaal introduced her to Green, and from there cropped up not only acting work but new pathways for creativity. Curtis tells SFX:
"The last thing I thought five years ago that I would be doing would be a Halloween movie. And here I am, having now completed three of them with a fantastic creative group of people. That has not only been satisfying for me, but it's launched me creatively into a whole other world. I have a creative life now, because of the Halloween movie, and the success. I now have a partnership with Jason Blum at Blumhouse, I have a production company, I've written a horror film that I will direct, I am producing television series, I am buying books. All of that was the last thing I thought I would be doing five years ago. So to say never is stupid."
Evil Dies Tonight... or does it?
Despite the never-say-never spirit, Curtis makes it clear that "Halloween Ends" will be the "last time" she sees her Laurie. Caught in the crosshairs of the sister-slaying Myers in "Halloween," Halloween II," "Halloween: H20" and "Halloween: Resurrection" before Green's "H40" trilogy, the resilient final girl has crossed four decades of waiting and fighting, fighting and waiting, in houses and hospitals and schools where evil could be anywhere. In spite of bullets, burns, blades, kung-fu, and electrocution, Myers is an unstoppable force and will always come back for more, a baked-in pretext for endless sequels.
Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum, whose production company took the helm for the franchise after Dimension Films' 90s run, echoes Curtis' sentiments, that the future could hold more "Halloween" movies but for now, this trilogy is definitively ending. While promoting "Halloween Kills" last year, Blum threw the ball into the court of producer and franchise custodian Malek Akkad:
"We made an arrangement for three movies. We had a three-picture marriage with Michael Myers. I would love to extend it. If Malek would like us, I'd love to extend it, but we're very busy making sure the third movie is spectacular because that's our immediate job and if it goes beyond that, I'd be thrilled. But there are currently no plans for us to be involved after this third movie."
As for original Michael Myers co-creator Carpenter, Myers can always come back if the price is right, proving the other popular "Halloween" maxim: You can't kill the Boogeyman.