New 'Halloween' Movie May Have John Carpenter Soundtrack, Original Director To Be Sequel's 'Godfather'

Original Halloween director John Carpenter will executive produce the next Halloween movie. The new Halloween sequel (or rebootquel, or whatever it turns out to be), is now in the Blumhouse Productions wheelhouse, teaming producer Malek Akkad with the production company behind Oculus, Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Sinister, Dark Skies, The Purge, The Gallows, Don’t Breathe and Creep.

In some ways it’s the same old Halloween sequel that’s been promised for years. Akkad has steered the Halloween series for years, producing Rob Zombie’s two reboots, and co-producing previous entries going back to Halloween H2O with his father, Moustapha Akkad, who produced every Halloween movie until his death in a terrorist bombing in 2005. When Akkad last offered an update on the project, the Halloween sequel featured a new generation of kids fleeing Michael Myers after he survives and escapes his own Death Row execution.

Now that Blumhouse and Carpenter are involved, the project is likely to change. Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum called Carpenter the “godfather” of the project, with Carpenter’s role on the film likely to shape the final product.

“Michael Myers is not a character,” Carpenter said during the announcement of the Halloween sequel deal. “He’s not a person. He’s a force of nature. He’s one part human and one part supernatural.”

Carpenter laid out a vision of sorts for the new Halloween, saying, “Be true to the original spirit of the movie. Don’t get carried away. Tell a simple story. Tell a scary story.”

Like many Blumhouse productions, the new Halloween is expected to have a small budget. But with Carpenter’s guidance and the possibility of a Carpenter score (still being negotiated), the low budget will hopefully help it skew closer to the original Halloween vision.