While John Carpenter built a reputation as a filmmaker making low budget creatures features and other films that could easily be described as "schlock," many of his creations have withstood the test of time and become genuine hits in their own right. Carpenter's Halloween is probably his most popular movie. It spawned numerous sequels over the years. However, Carpenter wasn't actually involved in most of them.
The recent Halloween reboot, which acted as a sequel to the original film, while discounting every other previous sequel, was one notable exception. John Carpenter wrote some of the music and also acted as an executive producer. The writer/director recently told Variety that he got involved this time around because producer Jason Blum basically told him to put up or shut up. According to carpenter...
Jason Blum came to me and said ‘This movie is going to be made. So we’d like you, John, to come aboard as an Executive Producer, and just short of shepherd it through. And maybe do the music.’ He challenged me, and he said ‘Why don’t you get off your lazy butt and make it good? Instead of sitting around complaining.’ So I said Ok. It was about like that.
John Carpenter isn't a guy who keeps his opinions to himself. He's pretty honest about how he feels and in the past he's been pretty critical of the various sequels, remakes and reboots, that have been made of his work. Apparently, the solution to that is to just tell the man to get off his ass and do some work to help make the movie good, rather than simply talk about how bad it is.
Most would agree, Jason Blum's strategy worked. The new Halloween was quite successful, winning over a lot of critics and making a strong box office showing as well. It did so well that at least one sequel is on the way, possibly more.
John Carpenter himself says in the interview that he prefers the remakes or reboots that don't necessarily involve him. As the writer of the original film, anybody who wants to remake it needs to pay him, and he doesn't have to do any work. It's hard to argue, that's a pretty good gig
However, while making money is nice, sometimes you also want to make a good movie, and it seems John Carpenter's ego won out. Of course, Carpenter doesn't take sole credit for making the new Halloween good. He also sings the praises of the film's star Jamie Lee Curtis.
She’s just awesome. She matured as an actress, and she’s just terrific. Jamie is truly a force of nature. She must be dealt with.
Halloween fans will need to deal with her again, as she's expected to return for the sequel to Halloween that is clearly on the way. It appears that John Carpenter is willing to get off his ass to make the sequel great as well.
