Marcus Dunstan Talks Halloween Returns
A two-part video interview with Marcus Dunstan regarding Halloween Returns has made its way online, and we have both parts for you right here, which explain the meaning of the film’s title along with the first news that The Last House on the Left‘s Gillian Jacobs could be joining the cast.
BIG thanks to Halloween Daily News for transcribing!
In terms of the film’s title and its meaning:
“Halloween, if you have a semicolon, Returns, I think I put it in an e-mail as a subtitle, but I think it was registered as Halloween Returns, which is fine. I like that, and it works, it does function as what it means to say. But if you commit a violent act, sometimes you get returns. What are the repercussions of being a violent entity? In that case, Halloween Returns could mean a number of things.”
Of a possible trailer / mask reveal…
“I hope, I mean ideally, and this is just the fanboy in me talking, there’s some Comic-Con or something, and there’s this asterisk in the panel or this untitled movie or something. Then when people don’t know what it is, and a lot of people are like, ‘Well, I’m gonna go to the bathroom’, it just hits. And no one sees it coming.”
Of the mask’s reveal, likely in an early teaser trailer, the director cites the recent Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser featuring a familiar yet aged Harrison Ford at the end, stating, “Our goal is to have that Han and Chewie moment.” When asked about how the Michael Myers mask will look, Dunstan says it has to resemble the classic profile from the John Carpenter’s 1978 original Halloween.
How far along is the project…
“The coolest thing we’ve done so far is a couple motion tests of potential Michaels.”
In terms of where the film falls in the many Halloween mythologies…
“I want to see a film shot on film. I want it to be one that stands on its own. I want to make The Dark Knight.” meaning – Aliens and The Dark Knight are fully satisfying films in their own right, but they still continue a story and set up plenty of others to come.
As for the possible casting…
“I really like this actress Gillian Jacobs. She’s known for all this comedy on “Community,” and yet I didn’t know her from “Community” first, I knew her from a movie called Gardens of the Night, which is one of the most wrenching dramas, and she’s excellent. I thought, ‘I wonder if this great performer would do that again, would like to go there, and I think so.’”
In terms of inspiration
“[Patrick Melton and I] went back to the original screenplay too and just read it, John Carpenter’s draft, and timed it with watching the movie, and line for line it keeps the same clock as watching the movie, so if you’re reading the pages, it’s almost like a shot list. Suspense isn’t expensive. A karate fight in a burning room is expensive. Michael Myers is subtlety and suspense.”
Dig on the full interview below for more, courtesy of Shane’s World.
https://youtu.be/KO8iq1KF8bs
Dimension Films and Trancas International Films present Halloween Returns, written by Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton and directed by Dunstan.
The film will pit a new group of Haddonfield youngsters against Myers. The now 18-year-old child of one of Myers’ victims plays a central role along with the child of a cop who’s long been obsessed with Myers’ case, even putting it before his own daughter.
Myers is now on Death Row, and the two kids with their own personal vendettas against the killer sneak in to watch his execution. But when things go awry and Myers escapes, the pair, along with their friends, find themselves in the firing line.
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