For horror fans, the news that Jamie Lee Curtis would reprise her iconic Scream Queen role as Laurie Strode in 2018's Halloween was met with widespread approval.
David Gordon Green stepped behind the camera to helm the follow-up to John Carpenter's beloved 1978 classic. Halloween received positive reviews (79% on Rotten Tomatoes), but 2021's Halloween Kills (38%) and 2022's Halloween Ends (40%) rank among the franchise's worst-reviewed efforts.
Curtis starred in all three instalments, but admits she wouldn't have said yes to that initial return if she'd known then that it would commit her to two follow-ups.
Talking at an SXSW panel titled, "If Not Now, When, if Not Me, Who? Pivoting and Manifesting," Curtis said (via FearHQ.com), "The only reason I am sitting in this chair today is because of Jason. Jason Blum, who runs Blumhouse, is the one who brought back the 'Halloween' movies."
"If they had come to me and said it’s going to be a trilogy, I don’t think I would have said yes," the actress admitted. "Jason Blum is notoriously cheap. How do you make low-budget movies? You don’t pay people. That’s the model."
Still, like Sydney Sweeney used Madame Web to strengthen her relationship as a producer with Sony Pictures, Curtis also figured out how to leverage this lengthier-than-expected Halloween commitment to her advantage.
"While we were editing and doing the mix, David said, 'You know it’s a trilogy.' I was like, 'Uh, no.' I went to Jason Blum and said, 'I have some ideas, maybe you could give me a first look deal, just pay me a little money.' I said to Jason, 'How about a little development deal?' And I owed him two 'Halloween' movies, so what was he gonna say?"
Curtis used the "vanity deal," as she described it, to pay filmmaker Russell Goldman to develop Mother Nature, and later approached Blum with The Lost Bus, an Apple TV movie starring Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera.
Later admitting that she isn't a huge horror fan herself, the Scarpetta star said, "I’m in love with the independent filmmaking aspect of the genre. So because of that, the genre aspect, I appreciate, and I owe my life to the genre, but I don’t have to pretend to you that I’m a genre girl, and that I love it."
As of now, the Halloween franchise is on the shelf. There's been some chatter about a TV series, but it's been a long time since we've heard anything about the project, and it's seemingly been put on the back burner.
What did you think of the modern Halloween trilogy starring Curtis? Let us know in the comments section, and click here to stay on top of all things horror.