STACK #169 Nov 2018

CINEMA FEATURE

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MICHAEL MYERS MEETS JASON

STACK spoke with Halloween producer Jason Blum about bringing back the boogeyman and Jamie Lee Curtis, and boldly resetting the long-running horror franchise. Words Scott Hocking J ason Blum, the founder of Blumhouse Productions, is the man behind some of the most successful horror film which to us was a bonus – two for the price of one. We were thrilled about that, and we were off…”

Indicative of the Blumhouse ethos is the producer’s choice of David Gordon Green ( The Pineapple Express ) to co-write the screenplay (with Danny McBride) and direct the new Halloween . “That was one of my planning decisions around the movie – I’d admired David for a very long time,” says Blum. “I have a philosophy that you don’t need a great horror director to make a

franchises of the last decade, including Paranormal Activity , Insidious and The Purge , as well as the Oscar-winning Get Out . Blum can be considered a modern day Roger Corman; the Blumhouse business model is committed to delivering quality genre films on a low budget, giving directors creative freedom, and fostering up-and- coming filmmakers. Its track record at the box office is a Hollywood success story. Who better then to bring

great horror movie, you just need a great director. That’s very unusual in Hollywood, definitely. “[ Get Out director] Jordan Peele is the best

You don't need a great horror director to make a great horror movie, you just need a great director

a new Halloween film to the screen? Moreover, one that serves as a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s classic 1978 original. Blum, however, wasn’t about to proceed

example of that. He’s certainly never done a

horror movie before, and he made maybe one of the best ones we’ve ever done.” Halloween is the eleventh

without first getting Carpenter’s blessing. “He was very reluctant to do it and pretty cynical about it,” the producer says of Carpenter’s initial reaction to a new Halloween . “I wasn’t going to do the movie unless he said yes. At the end of our meeting I said, ‘Look John, if you say no, I’ll say no, but if we both say no they’re still going to make another Halloween movie with or without us, so why not jump in and make it a good one and not complain from the sidelines.’ “I think that resonated with him and he agreed to it subject to him doing the music,

installment in the long-running franchise but takes the bold approach of disregarding the events of previous sequels (and Rob Zombie's reboot), picking up 40 years after the night of Carpenter’s film – an idea Blum says was all Green and McBride’s. “I can’t imagine how else we would have done it," he admits. "When I heard the idea I liked it and encouraged them to go forward with it, but I didn’t realise how good of an idea it was until much further down the road. “When they figured that out, so many

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NOVEMBER 2018

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