The next instalment in the Halloween franchise was back-burnered for a while, but Michael Myers is apparently now charging ahead with his knife raised once again. Halloween 3D** has just been given a release date of October 26 next year.
The question is, what's the movie? There's no clue so far as to who may be directing or which script is being used. The version that was previously alive in 2009 was all-systems-go with the Drive Angry and My Bloody Valentine team of Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer, but last we heard they were otherwise occupied on the Hellraiser reboot.
If we're looking at a different director using Lussier and Farmer's script, then Halloween 3D will pick up directly after Rob Zombie's sequel. Lussier explained to MTV last year that "The film we wrote took place like the next frame after Rob's ended, and immediately went into stripping Michael Myers back to his John Carpenter roots. You then pick up the story a year later, as Halloween rolls round again and everyone's back in the fray."
Later he lamented to Screenrant that "We were very excited about the script we wrote, and [Halloween franchise owner] Malek Assad was very excited, and we loved him and we'd love to make the movie with him. But it's up to the grown-ups who are above our pay-grade."
Halloween 3D was initially pulled so that Lussier and Farmer could concentrate on Drive Angry. Does the same fate await Hellraiser, in favour of** Halloween**?* And would it be a no-win situation for the pair? Everyone hated Zombie's Part II for trying something different, but just wait for the complaints if the franchise now retreats into doing nothing new at all...
All speculation obviously, but we can probably confidently predict that this Halloween 3 will involve Michael Myers, and won't feature an evil toymaker and a really annoying song{
*A long time ago there were plans for a Pinhead vs. Michael Myers film. Could it be... are they... surely not... no.