New ‘Halloween’ Filmmaker Reveals How He Got Jamie Lee Curtis to Return

After being absent from the franchise that launched her career for nearly two decades, the upcoming Halloween sequel will see the return of Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode. Co-writer Danny McBride recently revealed to Yahoo! that, to get Curtis to return, he and co-writer/director David Gordon Green aimed to create a script that she “couldn’t say no to” that would take her character into a new realm.

“I think everyone was kind of on the mindset of it’d be a grab to get her, but no one really knew if we would be able to,” McBride shared of the experience. “So Dave and I just busted our ass on this script to really make that Laurie Strode character something she wouldn’t be able to say no to. When we finished the script, we sent it to her, and she said she was in. So we just flipped out. We were over the moon about her involvement.”

Curtis debuted in the original 1978 film and reprised her role for Halloween II. Between these two films and a variety of other roles in horror classics, Curtis became one of the original “Scream Queens,” who were actresses that regularly starred in horror films and developed massive followings.

After the 1981 sequel, Curtis was absent from the Halloween franchise as it pursued a variety of narratives until 1998’s Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. That film negated the events of previous films and also reinvigorated the franchise, leading to Halloween: Resurrection, which saw the death of her character.

The actress isn’t the only seminal member of the franchise making their return, as John Carpenter, who hasn’t been directly involved in the franchise since 1982’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch, will serve as the sequel’s executive producer.

“I’m a humongous Halloween fan, so when David and I got approached about doing this from Blumhouse, the first thing David and I said was, ‘We’ll come up with a take, but we have to pitch it to Carpenter. If he’s not interested, we’re definitely not into making this,’” McBride confessed. “And [executive producer] Jason Blum was totally on board with that. That’s exactly what he wanted to do anyway.”

Carpenter has seemingly been impressed with the filmmakers’ vision thus far, as the film is slated for a release on October 19, 2018.

[H/T Yahoo!]