HALLOWEEN RETURNS Director Eyes Gillian Jacobs For Lead Role

Earlier this year, Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton (Feast, Saw IV through VII) were hired to write a "recalibration" of the Halloween franchise made famous by John Carpenter's 1978 classic. Dunstan is going to direct, and the story is said to pick up after the events of 1981's Halloween II, following Deputy Gary Hunt as the new town sheriff who's obsessed with Michael Myers' case. It will reportedly ignore the Rob Zombie-directed reboot and all of the franchise's other sequels, treating only the very first two films as canon.

Halloween Daily News has a new interview with Dunstan, who has an interesting choice in mind for the lead actress :

"I really like this actress Gillian Jacobs. She's known for all this comedy on Community, and yet I didn't know her from Community first, I knew her from a movie called Gardens of the Night, which is one of the most wrenching dramas, and she's excellent. I thought, 'I wonder if this great performer would do that again, would like to go there, and I think so."

That last "I think so" makes it seem like Jacobs is interested in the part and they've had discussions with her about it, so we'll see if her casting becomes official over the next few weeks. I think she'd be great as the lead in a Halloween film, especially one set in the 1980s following the events of Carpenter's movie and its sequel. (I can easily see her fitting into a period piece set during that time.) I've seen every episode of Community but none of her dramatic work outside of the show, so scoring the lead in a big horror film could open Jacobs up to a whole new audience. Hopefully Dunstan and Melton can pull this off.

Via: ComingSoon