news Jamie Lee Curtis Reveals Jake Gyllenhaal Helped Assemble the Latest ‘Halloween’ Reboot

When “Halloween Ends” hits theaters next weekend it will mark the end of both David Gordon Green’s trilogy of “Halloween” movies and the conclusion to the franchise as a whole. At least for now, as any slasher fan understands that no series is ever truly dead.

One person who knows that all too well is Jamie Lee Curtis, who has played Laurie Strode in eight “Halloween” movies beginning with John Carpenter’s original 1978 film. Her character has been killed off on multiple occasions over the past four decades, but the flexible rules of slasher movie mythology have allowed her to keep coming back.

For example, Green’s reboot trilogy opted to ignore all of the sequels and simply pick up decades after the original film. It was a creative choice that surprised Curtis, as she thought her days of starring in the “Halloween” franchise were behind her. In a new interview with SFX Magazine, she credits her decision to reprise the role to an unlikely source: Jake Gyllenhaal.

“I was sitting in the exact place I am sitting right now when my phone rang, and it was Jake Gyllenhaal,” Curtis said. “I picked up the phone and he said, ‘Hey Jame, my friend David Gordon Green’—who he had just worked with on the movie ‘Stronger’—’would like to talk to you about a Halloween movie.’ That was in 2017, in the summer. The last thing I thought five years ago that I would be doing would be a ‘Halloween’ movie.”

Looking back, Curtis couldn’t be happier that Gyllenhaal called her about the opportunity. The experience of making three more “Halloween” movies with Green reinvigorated her interest in horror in a way that should keep her busy for years to come.

“And here I am, having now completed three of them with a fantastic creative group of people,” she said. “That has not only been satisfying for me personally and creatively, but it has launched me creatively into a whole other world. I have a creative life now, because of the ‘Halloween’ movie, and the success. I now have a partnership with Jason Blum at Blumhouse, I have a production company, I’ve written a horror film that I will direct, I am producing television series, I am buying books. All of that was the last thing I thought I would be doing five years ago. So to say never is stupid.”

“Halloween Ends” will be released in theaters and stream on Peacock on Friday, October 14.
 
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