Exclusive: Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer Talk Halloween 3, Hellraiser and More!

Steve Barton |

Feb 23, 2011

Dread hit the red carpet last night for the premiere of director and co-writer (with Todd Farmer) Patrick Lussier’s Drive Angry 3D last night at the Arclight in Hollywood, CA, and while we spoke extensively with the two regarding that film (see our coverage here), we also chatted a bit about the status of the other genre projects they are attached to: the Hellraiser reboot as well as Halloween 3D.

Said Farmer of the duo’s scripted take on Clive Barker’s 1987 classic (Lussier is slated to direct), which is set up at The Weinstein Company, “We are in the middle of writing Hellraiser. We’d literally be working on the script tonight, but we are here with you.”

Chimed in Lussier, whose previous fright flicks include My Bloody Valentine 3D, Dracula 2000, and White Noise 2: The Light, “We are into the thick of it, and it’s very exciting. It’s something that when we went in to pitch to Bob (Weinstein), we told him that we didn’t want to remake a classic, and that the original Hellraiser stands as it is. It’s a personal movie for Clive, and we want to play with the world that he has created, and to go behind the curtain behind what you see, and to see more of that world, as opposed to retelling the story of Frank and Kirsty.”

“The film is so beloved by genre fans,” continued Lussier, “but it’s also so personal. Doing a Hellraiser remake is different than, for instance, My Bloody Valentine 3D, which was an incredibly fun movie, and the original (on which it was based) is so much fun, but it’s also very much a Canadian tax shelter movie. I mean, at the time there was Happy Birthday to Me and all of those movies, and they were great fun movies, but they are clearly not as personal as such a film as Hellraiser. So we want to be very respectful of the source material and at the same time not step on the movie that Clive made.”

As for the pair’s take on Halloween 3(D) following the poorly-received second reboot installment (as written and directed by Rob Zombie), Farmer said, “I love the script we wrote. We wrote something that respected what Rob did, but we wanted to take it back to more of a John Carpenter feel, and we love it. But right now Bob (Weinstein) wants to concentrate on others things. The idea was to start it where Rob had left off and open the journey then to more of ‘The Shape’ and the mysterious and the prick that Michael Myers is known to be.”

Expounded Lussier, “The concept is to complete Rob’s journey and then very quickly take it back to the root of what Carpenter created in 1978 and of how fun it was to see that movie when you were a kid. The thing about Michael in Carpenter’s movie is that he doesn’t make sense, and he is clearly from a family which was perfectly normal, and he is a ‘blank,’ which makes him far scarier. With Zombie’s Halloween, it was, ‘I’m not surprised that guy’s turned out to be a serial killer.’ With Carpenter, it was, ‘How did that guy turn into a serial killer?’ If he did, anyone can, which is really scary.”

Dread asked Lussier of the status of his rumored feature Condition Dead 3D.

“It’s sort of a zombie-war movie,” said the filmmaker, “and one of those projects that’s been in development for a long time. When the time is right and it cycles around, and someone has the money to pay for it, then we will get it made; but until then it’s just something that everyone who has been involved with loves, and they keep the fires burning under it. It’s one of those scripts that you keep in your suitcase as you travel from town to town hoping someone will say, ‘Let’s do that one!’”

Lussier is clearly a fan of the hybrid genre in which Condition Dead 3D plays as well, as evidenced when we referenced the similar-in-tone 2009 Norwegian flick Dead Snow.

“I love that film! Dead Snow is awesome,” effused Lussier of the Tommy Wirkola-directed romp. “That was a great story. Nazi zombies, of course! How could there not be?”