MOVIE NEWS – Miramax is reportedly shopping the rights to the iconic slasher franchise Halloween after the Blumhouse trilogy wrapped.

The rights to the Halloween franchise are reportedly back on the market. The slasher franchise, which featured the iconic killer Michael Myers in John Carpenter’s original 1978 film, has several continuity lines. Up until Halloween 2002, seven sequels were released within the various sequels. For example, Resurrection, which was followed by Rob Zombie’s 2007 remake and its sequel.

Most recently, director and co-screenwriter David Gordon Green has teamed up with Blumhouse for a trilogy of films set between 2018 and 2022, which is supposed to close the chapter of the franchise that followed the showdown between Myers and his intended victim Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis).

Bloody Disgusting now reports that the rights to the Halloween franchise are back on the market. Miramax is currently shopping the franchise and has launched a bidding war. The company is looking at both studios and streaming providers as potential buyers, with the possibility of adapting the franchise into either a movie or television.

What could be next for the Halloween franchise?

Although 2022’s Halloween Ends is billed as the franchise’s end, it will probably just mark the end of the Laurie Strode story starring Jamie Lee Curtis. However, the ever-unkillable Michael Myers is not a character tied to a specific actor. (Although Nick Castle is best known for playing the role in both the original film and the new trilogy.) Over the years, Myers has been portrayed by more than a dozen different actors in different contexts and at different times.

For this reason, it would be much easier to recast Myers himself than to reinvent Laurie Strode. If the property were sold to a streamer, it seems likely that a series or miniseries would be made of it. Possibly a Halloween prequel film centred on a younger Myers.

This seems entirely plausible, as television adaptations of slashers have become popular in recent years thanks to shows like USA Network and Syfy’s Chucky, as well as Peacock’s upcoming Friday the 13th adaptation.

This would also give Halloween a delayed opportunity to join the ranks of the great 1980s slasher franchises on the small screen. Friday the 13th has already been adapted for television in the loosely related Friday the 13th: The Series. As has A Nightmare on Elm Street with the Freddy Krueger-led anthology series Freddy’s Nightmares. By bringing Myers to streaming, the creators could explore a new side of the character and take the franchise in a completely different direction.

Source: Bloody Disgusting