5. A Zombie-free future?

Despite the seeming success of his first attempt at Michal Myers, it looked for a while like Rob Zombie wouldn’t be returning to the franchise he helped to relaunch.

Citing the fact that “I was so burned out,” after working on the first movie, Zombie elected to initially pass on the sequel, preferring instead to focus on his music and other film projects, including OTT animated adventure Tyrannosaurus Rex.

The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films sent producer Malek Akkad to the 30 Years Of Horror Convention to reveal that a direct sequel to the movie would indeed be produced and that directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury (who had made French horror inside and had been in development on a Hellraiser remake) would step in.

But it didn’t last long. After various unsuccessful drafts by different writers and the directing team’s departure, December 2008 saw a rumour reported by Shock ‘Till You Drop that Zombie would indeed return, a rumour that became reality shortly afterwards.

Seems as though Zombie had taken some time out to consider his position and, after working on other material for a while, had decided to return to Halloween, with Tyler Mane (who was already on board anyway), Taylor Compton-Scout and Malcolm McDowell all back.

It would mean another punishing schedule for the helmer, as he’d have to have everything ready for August 2009…

Next Up: Gearing back up