In an 8.28 New Yorker interview, Adam Nayman chats with fabled director John Carpenter:
Nayman: “You’ve been very up-front in the past about sequels and intellectual property, and how you can always go back to material if there’s a chance it’ll make more money. Some people can be precious about it, but you’re very direct. There’s always a sequel to be made. There’s always a remake.”
Carpenter: “If a movie makes enough money, you can be assured that it will.”
Nayman: “The rhetoric around Halloween Ends (Universal, 10.14.22) is that it’s definitely, finally going to be the last one. Should it be?”
Carpenter: “I’ll have to see how much money it makes!”
Nayman: “That’s a good answer. Have you had to bite your tongue in the past about sequels or reboots of your movies?”
Carpenter: “I just don’t say anything. It’s better that way sometimes. Every time I open my mouth, I get in trouble.”
HE to Carpenter: Please consider abandoning the Halloween franchise, now and forever. And please consider remaking They Live (’88), your creepy social commentary aliens flick which, of course, was really about unbridled Reaganism and mercenary yuppies. All you have to do is change the identity of the baddies by making them wokesters.