HALLOWEEN RETURNS Abandoned as Dimension Films Loses Rights to The Franchise

Looks like Michael Myers isn't going to go on another killing spree for a while.

Bloody-Disgusting reports that Dimension Films no longer controls the rights to the Halloween franchise, and that the planned film Halloween Returns has been scrapped, with director Marcus Dunstan and writer Patrick Melton being released from the project. Dimension has owned the rights for the past twenty years, shepherding Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, Halloween: Resurrection, and Rob Zombie's Halloween remake and its sequel to the big screen. Miramax Films is reportedly shopping the rights to the franchise around to other studios.

Halloween Returns may have starred Community's Gillian Jacobs, and it would have taken place after the events of Halloween II and ignored all other movies in the franchise, treating only the first two films as canon. Since Dunstan and Melton (who co-wrote many of the Saw films) have been let go, I'm assuming their script has been trashed and whoever eventually snags the rights will have to start from scratch.

Bloody-Disgusting brings up an interesting idea, though: if the franchise rights land at a studio like Paramount or Warner Bros., there's the potential of a crossover featuring Michael Myers and either Jason Voorhees (Paramount) or Freddy Krueger (New Line/WB). Is that something you would be excited to see? After Freddy vs. Jason, I'm not so sure it's a good idea. We'll have to wait and see where those rights land, but as of right now, the future of The Shape is uncertain.