halloween
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Naturally, all the focus right now is on the upcoming ‘Halloween’ film, which is a direct sequel to the 1978 original.  Jamie Lee Curtis is returning as Laurie Strode, while Nick Castle is back as The Shape behind the mask, Michael Myers.  But there are plans in place to bring the classic horror franchise to TV, according to producer Malek Akkad.  He first announced these plans two years ago, but it seems that these plans have been the works for a great while longer than that, but that they have been placed on the back burner in order to focus on hopefully rekindling interest in the franchise.

In an interview with Bloody Disgusting, Akkad said:

“You know, it’s something that we’ve had for a long time and I definitely want to see it done.  When we started doing it… this was in development about a decade ago. At the time, I think the thought was we don’t want to cannibalize the theatrical. Let’s keep it as a theatrical event movie. If that starts flowing down, we would address TV. Nowadays, we all know, TV is pulling out ahead of theatrical in a way that surprised everybody, certainly me.”

Some older franchises haven’t been doing so well in theaters. For instance, the recent ‘The Predator’ which stumbled at the box office.  Not to wish ill toward the new ‘Halloween’, but if it doesn’t prove to be a huge it, Akkad and other producers may shift gears to focus on the TV iteration.  As he stated:

“Just getting across the finish line for this one, that’s the goal right now.  We’ve got the wind at our back, everything looks good. Before we start talking about anything else, it’s all about the movie. [The show] is something that there’s been some discussions.”

Slasher movies have proven difficult to adapt to television.  Beginning in 1987, ‘Friday the 13th: The Series’ aired for three seasons, but the show was never conceived to be an extension of the film series of the same name and Jason Voorhees was not part of the show.  Instead, it was a supernatural anthology show and was intended to be called ‘The 13th Hour’.  The ‘Friday the 13th’ name was slapped on to attract fans of the films.  More recently, ‘Scream: The Series’ and ‘Scream Queens’ managed to last two moderately-rated seasons each.

Akkad insists that Michael Myers and another established characters will be part of the ‘Halloween’ show.

“It wouldn’t look anything like your traditional Halloween movie, but he’s in there as are a lot of other characters but used in different and interesting ways… I wish I could talk more about it but it’s something we’re looking at very closely.”

Are you interested in seeing an ongoing ‘Halloween’ TV series?