John Carpenter Actively Involved in Developing New ‘Halloween’

The upcoming Halloween sequel is uniting many of the biggest names from the original films, including actress Jamie Lee Curtis and writer/director/composer John Carpenter. The original film’s creator might not be the mastermind of the project, with Danny McBride and David Gordon Green taking on writing and directing duties, but Carpenter is staying more involved with the project than anyone expected, giving his approval on many of the sequel’s different elements.

“We don’t take any big steps without his approval, so, for instance, hiring David and Danny [McBride] he approved,” producer Jason Blum told Coming Soon. “He approved their pitch, he approved their first script. He approved bringing back Jamie Lee Curtis. So anytime we make a big creative turn he’s involved with that and we don’t do it without his blessing.”

The initial announcement of the sequel came with the news that Carpenter would be the executive producer of the new film, with no other details about his involvement. The filmmaker departed the financially successful series of films due to his lack of interest in exploring the mythology of Michael Myers, which became the dominating narrative of the series.

Blum addressed the lack of Carpenter’s official obligations, noting, “We went to him and asked him to be involved. There was no contractual, financial or any other obligation to have him on this movie. We went back and asked him to join us again.”

In the last few years, Carpenter has focused more of his time and energy on creating original music for the albums Lost Themes and Lost Themes II, even taking the records on tour across the world. Having created the iconic title tracks from films like The Fog, Christine and Assault on Precinct 13, Carpenter is as accomplished of a composer as a filmmaker.

The filmmaker even teased in his initial Facebook post about the new sequel’s writers/directors that he was toying with the idea of composing, something Green echoed while recently doing press for his latest film, Stronger.

The next installment in the Halloween series is slated to be released October 19, 2018.