Collins, Pixar, Halloween: Weekly Round Up

24th June 2019

Collins, Pixar, Halloween…

Last week we got the news that Sigourney Weaver is returning to the Ghostbusters fold, in her original role of Dana Barret for Jason Reitman’s much anticipated Ghostbusters 3. It would seem that she’s not the only “scream queen” scheduled to make a comeback to an iconic character. Jamie Lee Curtis returned to the role of Laurie Strode, who first appeared in John Carpenter’s classic 1978 horror Halloween, which is often credited as birthing the slasher sub-genre, and returned as the character in last years soft reboot, also (confusingly) titled Halloween.

That movie, which received a Carpenter approval, was a box office smash, and it would see Universal Pictures are taking note -Lord knows they should, given the disaster that was their Mummy reboot. Perhaps unsurprisingly the studio is moving quickly forward with plans for a sequel, which will see Curtis return alongside stars of the 2018 movie, Judy Greer and Andi Matichak, who play Laurie’s daughter and granddaughter respectively.

Not much else is known about the film as of yet, although an untitled horror film is penciled in for release on October 16, 2020, which many are speculating is most likely going to be what is being referred to (even more confusingly) as Halloween II.

I’m happy to wait and see with this one, it could be good, could be crap, but the Halloween franchise is full of ups and downs and I’m pretty good just seeing old Michael Myers back in the fray. Here’s hoping that the success of this movie, and hopefully its sequel, leads to similar soft reboots for other iconic slasher killers like Freddy and Jason. I mean, who wouldn’t want to see the cinemas populated by those guys again?

Speaking of iconic horror movies, it looks like we’re about to be tortured with another entry into the Paranormal Activity franchise. The last few movies in the franchise we’re hardly game-changers, and while I have to admit I do quite enjoy the original (and even its direct sequel), I can’t honestly say that I was all that blown away by the films that followed.

Of course, it was probably inevitable that Paramount would return to the Paranormal Activity well at some point, given how cheap the movies are to produce, and given that all of them have easily turned a profit on release, one can at least understand their decision.

Horror-master Jason Blum, or Blumhouse, is producing this one, which at least suggests we’re on the right track. Blumhouse may not have always released gems, but they have always remained on brand, and any horror is better than no horror.

Other than Blum’s involvement not much is yet known about what Paranormal Activity 7 will look like. Expect more found footage shenanigans though, as that is the franchises USP. My money is on this acting like a reboot that ties into the original film, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some returning cast members announced over the next few months.

Returning cast members are something we likely won’t be seeing in Lionsgate’s proposed Hunger Games prequel.

This week it was announced that author Suzanne Collins will be publishing and untitled Panem novel, and that the events in the book will take place 64 years before the events depicted in The Hunger Games and its sequels. With this announcement quickly came the news that Lionsgate will be producing a movie adaptation of Collins’ new novel.

Quite what the new Collins book or film will entail remains a mystery, but I’ll admit I’m curious. I enjoyed the Hunger Games movies, more so than people might expect, in fact (certainly more than I expected that I would), and so I’m willing to give this a chance. At the least it’ll be interesting to see whether or not Lionsgate can succeed where J K Rowling and Warner Bros. failed.

Suzanne Collins is yet to start retroactively pretending to be woke, so they’re already one up there.

Our final bit of news this week is intriguing as well. Of the seven movies Pixar Animation Studios have released over the last five years, all have been sequels, with exception of Coco. That’s something of a shame for the studio who brought us such fresh originally not that long ago with the likes of Toy Story, Monster’s Inc., The Incredibles and the like.

But it looks like Pixar are about ready to turn their backs on sequels after this years Toy Story 4 (which is good, by the way. Probably the worst one in the series, but still much better than what other studios are offering on the animation front… for the most part), with next year seeing the release of not one, but two original properties.

The first is Onward, which has already released a trailer (and features some very Frozen-inspired titles), but it’s the second, more mysterious project that piqued my attention.

Titled Soul, Pixar’s mystery movie is from director Pete Doctor, the man behind Up and Inside Out. The studio released a general premise along with the title, and it sounds excitingly high concept. It read: “Ever wonder where your passion, your dreams and your interests come from? What is it that makes you… YOU?” I have no idea what that means, but I’m in whatever it is.

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