Miramax Seeking to Sell the Rights to HALLOWEEN and Michael Myers

Rights to Michael Myers Up For Grabs

Miramax has put the rights to Michael Myers and the Halloween pictures on the selling block, hoping to make a “killing” on the sales of said rights.

Studios are said to be negotiating with Miramax to get the rights to bring Michael Myers back to life with future film or television ideas. “Chucky” of Child’s Play fame has enjoyed a healthy revitalization in the Peacock series of the same doll name used in the title of the show. Why not Michael Myers next? The playing field is wide open for any type of project surrounding the famed serial killer who faced off with Jamie Lee Curtis in many of the films from the franchise. A studio just has to win the bidding war for these rights to use the names.

Movies like Scream VI have popped up that originated from ideas that were created decades ago. Scream was first released in 1996 while the sixth installment of the series came out just this year, some 27 years later. Halloween is another animal altogether, though. The horror film franchise has been rebooted to “death” and audiences are not buying as many tickets as they once did to these films. Case in point: Last year’s Halloween Ends only made $64 million domestically as opposed to its predecessor Halloween Kills‘ $92 million. But, shelve the idea of another Myers project for a while and a decade down the line, you could have more hit films as the absence of a famous character tends to make the heart grow fonder. Even for cinematic serial killers such as Michael Myers.

There is also the idea of rebooting the Halloween franchise as a television series (as per “Chucky”). This may be a way of generating quick cash for the studio that ultimately picks up the rights to the franchise from Miramax. A television series requires less from audience members. They can watch from home and are more likely at this point to turn on the television to watch Myers than go see him on the big screen again.

John Carpenter, Rob Zombie and David Gordon Green all received different types of praise for their handling of Michael Myers in Halloween projects throughout the years. However, now it’s time to spin the material for a new idea or format. Perhaps, even pairing Michael with another serial killer such as Jason or Freddy. Maybe even matching him with Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Jigsaw from Saw could be a profitable idea depending on which studio ultimately grabs the rights to the Myers legacy.

As Miramax is saying goodbye to Michael, which studio says hello to him next remains to be seen. There are certainly big projects that could derive from this source material and it’s the studio and their creative executives’ choices to decide how to make them. It will be interesting to see what company wins the rights and how those rights are used in the future.

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