Rob Zombie's Halloween

[MacGuffin]

No Halloween This Year?
Zombie's remake reportedly delayed.

Although casting was under way and the commencement of principal photography in California was imminent, filmmaker Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween has reportedly been delayed while the screenplay is reworked.

The brouhaha supposedly began when Ain't It Cool News panned a draft of Zombie's script, which caused Zombie to retort on his MySpace blog: "I notice that so many people get crazy when someone you don't even know posts an opinion about what they think Halloween will or won't be. This is crazy. Do you really go through life influenced by the thoughts of others that easily? Anyway, things change so much in a movie, from moment to moment, from second to second that all I can say is : see it for yourself and figure out if you like it or not."

Bloody-Disgusting now reports that "what we've heard from industry buzz is that after the online fiasco, shock-rocker Rob Zombie is going back to the script and doing more re-writes, thus pushing the shoot back a bit, thus forcing the release back from it's August 31st date. We've called people on all fronts and can't get a straight answer, so I guess only time will tell the truth."

The site adds that Lindy Booth (Wrong Turn) and Agnes Bruckner (The Woods) are in the running to play main character Laurie Strode... if and when filming actually happens.

[bonanzataz]

I notice that so many people get crazy when someone you don't even know posts an opinion about what they think Halloween will or won't be. This is crazy. Do you really go through life influenced by the thoughts of others that easily? Anyway, things change so much in a movie, from moment to moment, from second to second that all I can say is : see it for yourself and figure out if you like it or not.

fuck him. he's getting defensive because he knows what he's doing is just plain wrong. of all people, how could rob zombie think it was a good idea to remake halloween?

[MacGuffin]

Kier, Dourif Join Halloween
The latest casting news on Zombie's redo.

Director Rob Zombie has announced the latest piece of casting for his remake of the slasher classic Halloween. The helmer revealed at his MySpace blog that Udo Kier (BloodRayne), Brad Dourif (Lord of the Rings) and Kristina Klebe have joined the cast.

Malcolm McDowell stars as Dr. Loomis, portrayed in the original films by the late Donald Pleasence. Tyler Mane is playing the masked killer Michael Myers.

Zombie revealed that Kier will play "Morgan Walker head of Smith's Grove Sanitarium," while Dourif will play the role of Sheriff Brackett. Klebe has been cast as Lynda.

Other cast members include William Forsythe, Daeg Faerch, Sheri Moon Zombie, Hanna Hall, Dee Wallace Stone, Pat Skipper, Adrienne Barbeau, Lew Temple, Courtney Gains, Ken Foree, Clint Howard, Danielle Harris, Danny Trejo and Daryl Sabara.

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Halloween - The new Laurie Strode has been found

The filmmakers just announced on their official MySpace site who will play Laurie Strode in Rob Zombie's "Halloween". The character was portrayed by Jamie Lee Curtis in John Carpenter's original movie. The new Laurie Strode will be played by Scout Taylor-Compton ("Wicked Little Things", "Gilmore Girls").

[Derek]

I think Zombie is trying for the Guinness World Record for how many eccentric character actors you can stuff in one movie.

[MacGuffin]

Zombie Kills 'Halloween' Theme Song, Revokes Myers' Driver's License'
Everything I've wanted to do I've done with this movie,' director says.
Source: MTV

PASADENA, California — In this sacred neighborhood, on this holiest of blocks, Reverend Rob Zombie is presiding over a ceremony of appreciation. "Halloween" fans have come to worship the artifacts, kneel on the lawns of the sacrosanct homes and hum along with the hymns. Now, after 30 years of faithful repetition, the director of "The Devil's Rejects" is continuing the ritual — just don't expect him to preach from the same Bible.

"Michael Myers does not know how to drive in this movie," the long-haired, tattooed filmmaker told MTV over the weekend on the set of his highly anticipated remake of one of horror's most beloved slasher films. "[Myers in the station wagon] always bothered me. They would always play that off like someone must have given him lessons, but you know no one gave him lessons! He's in a maximum-security prison! So, no, he doesn't drive."

It's one of the sure-to-be-controversial revisions that Zombie is making to the classic John Carpenter flick. Realizing that the blueprint has simply been Xeroxed too many times, the ultra-violent filmmaker is now entering the final scenes of an intense 38-day shoot with wrestler/actor Tyler Mane as Myers, 18-year-old Scout Taylor-Compton as imperiled babysitter Laurie Strode and Malcolm McDowell as the eccentric Dr. Loomis.

"I want to make Loomis a man with a tremendous ego," said McDowell, dressed in black and draped in a beige trench coat that evokes predecessor Donald Pleasence. "[He's all about] getting a book out of it, which of course he has done, he's a best-seller ... he's the psychiatrist whose lifelong work is Michael Myers. He's obviously not a very good one, is he?"

Zombie's flick is also aiming to up the ante in terms of action. "I remember coming in the first day and we were down in the basement, and there was Lynda [actress Kristina Klebe] lying nude," Taylor-Compton remembered. "I'm screaming, and here comes Michael, and we're doing knife stuff and slashing him, and me pulling wood [off the wall] and going through a hole, climbing out this little fence and he pushes through the wall and grabs me ... I love doing my own stunts."

Contrary to Internet rumors, Zombie's "Halloween" has no discernible time period and begins well before the original's opening scene of young Michael killing his sister Judith (Laurie doesn't even come into the film until the final third). Now, the 6-year-old slaughters five of his relatives and is then sent to Loomis' sanitarium.

"In one scene we do, he's completely blank and I'm trying to coax him," McDowell said of his work with Daeg Faerch, who plays a young (and verbal!) Myers. "He gets to deliver [lines], but of course the older Michael is completely [silent]; he doesn't say a thing, he just wears a mask and terrifies everybody to death."

Including innocent drivers, apparently. On this particular day, Zombie has the 6-foot-10-inch Mane dressed in green coveralls, his hands so drenched in blood that they look like red work gloves, wearing a scarred white mask and holding a massive knife. Hiding behind a tree, he watches Laurie and her mother Cynthia (Dee Wallace) putting up Halloween decorations in their front yard. Filming in the same neighborhood where Carpenter shot the original, Zombie allows cars to access their homes between takes, resulting in more than one brake light upon discovering a homicidal icon on their sidewalk.

"[Myers' trademarks] were perfect for the original because nothing had become iconic," Zombie said, insisting that his movie will explain many of their origins. "It was just, 'Oh, the jumpsuit; big deal, it's a jumpsuit,' or, 'Oh the mask; big deal, it's a mask.' "

"In this film, Michael has [the mask] as a child," said Wayne Toth, the special-effects makeup artist on the flick, explaining why the new mask has scars on it. "While he's away [at the sanitarium], this time he's buried it in the basement of the Myers' house. So when he gets out, he digs it up and it's rotten."

Among the other notable moves that Zombie is embracing:

· The Myers' house is much larger, with a battered porch, "No Trespassing" boards on the windows and a "For Sale" sign out front reading "Strode Real Estate - Price Reduced." A blue RAM van in the driveway belongs to an ill-fated boyfriend, and a climactic battle between Laurie and Michael takes place in an empty swimming pool in the backyard.

· In the original, Myers killed two dogs, even eating one of them; this time PETA can relax. "No, there is nothing like that at all," Zombie said.

· While in the sanitarium, young Michael makes masks out of paper — a bucket of papier-mâché versions of his famous mask was glimpsed on set.

· Loomis steals a Town of Haddonfield police car in the film, using it as his transportation.

· Don't hold your breath for a Jamie Lee Curtis appearance à la "H20." "There are no real cameos," Zombie said. "There is no one from the original film."

· Look for a genre veteran as Myers' new best bud. "Danny Trejo, who always plays the badass, is playing the one sympathetic hospital worker at Smith's Grove," the director explained. "He's been with Michael for 17 years there."

· Zombie has stocked the cast with veteran actors like Udo Kier ("He's the head of Smith's Grove"), Tom Towles ("He plays a councilman who is at [Myers'] parole hearing"), Adrienne Barbeau ("She has a brief moment as a woman at the adoption agency in Haddonfield") and Sybil Danning ("[She is] a young Michael's last victim at Smith's Grove").

· McDowell and Taylor-Compton say they'd return for additional "Halloween" sequels, but Zombie insists he's done after one. ("Everything I've wanted to do I've done with this movie," he remarked.)

· Zombie won't replicate Carpenter's classic one-take opening scene. "Since I've already spent a half-hour developing the little kid," he reasoned, "to do any kind of mysterious POV would be ridiculous."

· Laurie has traded in her skirts and turtlenecks for Chuck Taylor sneakers and a skull-depicting hoodie. "She's conservative, but she has a little bit of an attitude now," said Taylor-Compton, whose character engages in a risqué conversation about bagel holes with her embarrassed mom.

One final change might just be the most controversial of them all: The dropping of the famous "Halloween" theme composed by Carpenter. "The plan was at some point to [remake it], to change it around," Zombie said, revealing that it has since been shelved. "The actual way it sounds now doesn't really work with what we're doing."

"We've reimagined the picture," producer Andy Gould added. "Perhaps a reimagining of the sound is in order too."

[MacGuffin]

Rob Zombie Says MTV Got It Wrong -- 'Halloween' Theme Will Remain
Source: Cinematical

Since John Carpenter's theme music for Halloween is probably one of the most recognized theme songs in movie history, you can imagine the outcry when a MTV interview with director Rob Zombie reported that he was not using the original music in his "re-imagining" of Carpenter's film. In the interview, Zombie was quoted as saying, "The plan was at some point to [remake it], to change it around, the actual way it sounds now doesn't really work with what we're doing." But it looks like all that upset was in vain as Ain't it Cool News has since reported that Zombie has corrected the article on the MySpace page for the film.

Zombie posted "Now I get it, MTV misunderstood what I was saying about the music. Oh well, I am still shooting and haven't even begin to explore the music side of things yet. I always planned on using the original theme since the beginning." Zombie is still promising plenty of changes; including no cameos from original cast members or re-creations of some of Carpenter's famous shots. But he seems determined to keep the music in one form or another -- although I can't help but worry another "re-imagining" could include "Halloween: The Dragula Remix."

[Pubrick]

I can't help but worry another "re-imagining" could include "Halloween: The Dragula Remix."

hahah, oh man, that made me laugh.

[OrHowILearnedTo]

"Michael Myers does not know how to drive in this movie," the long-haired, tattooed filmmaker told MTV over the weekend on the set of his highly anticipated remake of one of horror's most beloved slasher films. "[Myers in the station wagon] always bothered me. They would always play that off like someone must have given him lessons, but you know no one gave him lessons! He's in a maximum-security prison! So, no, he doesn't drive."

now i see his motivation

[MacGuffin]

Exclusive: Malcolm McDowell, The New Dr. Loomis, Talks 'Halloween'
Actor is pleased to say he's never seen original films.
Source: MTV

PASADENA, California — In 1978, British thespian Donald Pleasence stepped off the grand stage to give horror fans an all-time classic movie character, while declaring that he had stared into "this blank, pale, emotionless face with the blackest eyes ... the devil's eyes!" These days, the equally treasured Malcolm McDowell — perhaps best known for portraying the pathological Alex in "A Clockwork Orange" — is slipping into Dr. Sam Loomis' trademark trench coat to gaze into the peepers of the new Michael Myers. We caught up with the "Heroes" star on the set of Rob Zombie's "Halloween" remake for his first-anywhere interview about the film, getting thoughts on a CNN-friendly reinvention of the character, an unusually chatty Michael, and the inevitable sequels you'll be hearing about soon.

MTV: Tell us about your character.

Malcolm McDowell: I am playing the character that was originated by Donald Pleasence in the original "Halloween" all those years ago, which I never saw.

MTV: You've never seen the classic John Carpenter movie, or the sequels?

McDowell: No, I've never seen any one of them — and in a way, I'm thrilled and glad that I didn't see them. When I knew I was going to do it, I could have seen them, but I figured, "Why be influenced by someone else?" Let's just start fresh. [Zombie's remake] is a completely new look at it (see "Rob Zombie Talks 'Halloween': 'A Bloodbath Doesn't Interest Me' " and " 'Halloween' Star Scout Taylor-Compton Calls Michael Myers 'Cute,' Talks Sequel").

MTV: So what's your take on our old crazy friend Dr. Loomis?

McDowell: Dr. Samuel Loomis is a psychiatrist whose lifelong work is Michael Myers. He obviously isn't a very good one is he? [He laughs.] Of course, he doesn't cure him, and he doesn't help him in any way. Dr. Loomis is retired [in this film] ... I want to make Loomis a man with a tremendous ego. I've met some of these doctors through the years, where there is more ego in it than there is [interest in what's] best for the patient, and if they can get a book out of it — which of course he has done — it's a bestseller, and that's so much better.

MTV: So your Loomis is the type of guy we'd see on CNN as an "expert" on serial killers.

McDowell: Exactly. There is that element, which I thought would be fun to exploit in this character. How good of a psychiatrist he is, God knows. But he is dealing with a psychopath, and there really is not much you can do when it's a psychopath — maybe shock treatment or something. He has already killed five members of his own family [when he comes to Loomis]. It's a scary movie, but it's going to be a classic horror film.

MTV: You're one of the few actors who works opposite both the grown-up Michael (played by actor/wrestler Tyler Mane) and young Daeg Faerch, who plays the killer as a child. What's that been like?

McDowell: There's a 17-year gap from the childhood scenes [with Myers] to what you saw here tonight. Tyler, who plays him, is 6 foot 8 or something, and quite formidable looking. [With young Michael,] you are going to see him doing that sort of stuff at home when he was a child. The sort of family that he comes from, and how disjointed the whole thing is, and what a sad life and childhood he had.

MTV: In the original, we always heard Loomis making reference to watching Michael stare through the wall while they were in the sanitarium. Will this movie show us those moments?

McDowell: Well, I haven't shot those yet, but there is a lot of improvised stuff, which is great. There is a sort of roughness to it ... [young Michael] is just blank in one scene we do, [and we've decided] he'll be completely blank and then my cell phone will go off, which is what happened at rehearsal. It was a friend of mine who said his girlfriend was giving him crap, and I said, "Well look, I'm in the middle of a session, actually. What? Oh really! Well, tell her to go to hell!" [He laughs.] Rob went, "Great, let's use that!" I am very impressed with his cinema sense.

MTV: We know that older Michael is mute, but does young Michael deliver lines?

McDowell: Oh yeah, absolutely ... Michael is this sweet little boy who suddenly just turns evil, and the more angelic he looks, the more horrific the crimes are. He suddenly goes berserk and takes his own family out.

MTV: Fans of the original movies remember the big, over-the-top speeches from Loomis about "I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up!" Will you similarly embrace that melodrama?

McDowell: I get a couple of those yeah, but I'm hoping not to chew too much of the scenery because I'm trying to keep it reasonably real. There is a buffoonish quality to him, which is ridiculous if you look from the outside at him, and that, I think, is quite interesting. For instance, I do a whole lecture about, "These are the eyes of a killer, these are the eyes — they will deceive you, they will destroy you, these are the eyes of a psychopath." We go through a whole thing, and then I come out of the lecture and say to a guy: "They felt like a row of Christmas puddings! And what about that girl in the front row, what the hell was she doing there, spreading her legs? How can you stand it?" It's exactly what lecturers talk about after the fact.

MTV: Pleasence, like yourself, was a well-respected veteran British actor. Did you ever meet him?

McDowell: I did know Donald. I met him in London at the Royal Court Theatre. He was a tremendous actor — he played those wonderful sinister parts. I particularly remember him in two performances: He was in two great plays, one was written by Robert Shaw called "The Man in the Glass Booth" and the other was a [Harold] Pinter play, "The Caretaker."

MTV: Donald Pleasence appeared in five "Halloween" films — how many sequels do you have in you?

McDowell: Well, let's take it one by one and see how we do. If it's a great big success, then I'm sure they will want to make another. And I'm sure I will want to play him again, because he is a great character.

[modage]

TEASER: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809784517/trailer

[The Red Vine]

I hated "House of 1000 Corpses".

I liked "The Devil's Rejects".

I don't have much hope for this one.

[The Perineum Falcon]

That looks silly.

I wish you couldn't see his eyes. I liked it better that way.

[bonanzataz]

ugh, this looks terrible.

and i loved house of 1000 corpses and devil's rejects.

i'm very upset about this and even more upset that i'm going to help make this a hit by seeing it in theaters...

[Derek237]

-Evil little kid rocker haircut for young Michael: stupid

-The return of the horrible child actress from part 4 and 5, Danielle Harris: an abomination

-Rob Zombie at the directing helm: an awful, awful choice (and people thought the phrase, "Written and Directed by Sylvester Stallone" was laughable...think again.)

-The inclusion of Malcolm McDowell as Dr. Loomis: admittedly pretty awesome

-Re-inventing yet another horror classic: more of an insult than all of the others combined, by principle alone

-The fact that they fucked up the Myers character so badly that the majority of the young, stupid audience members will think they're watching another sequel to Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Priceless.

[MacGuffin]