Night He Came Home : The Rise, Fall, and Revival of the Halloween Franchise

The Night He Came Home tells the full story of the making and marketing of the ten-part Halloween film franchise. Until recently, John Carpenter's low budget 1978 work Halloween was the most profitable independent movie of all time (not even 1998's The Blair Witch Project could surpass its 150:1 gross-to-cost return). But Halloween 's success inspired imitators and sequels, boardroom battles, lawsuits, and ideas that forever changed the franchise, the American horror movie and then the entire film industry. In telling this simple story, The Night He Came Home also details the history of the slasher movie, revealing many surprising facts (i.e., white females constituting its biggest audience). The book also reveals the specific elements that go into scripts that are green-lit and shows where essays by the usual suspects get the facts wrong. In addition, readers will get a first look at today's real Hollywood, where fast-talking executives demand fast-moving films for teen viewers with lots of disposable income. They'll learn why the masks changed for various installments; how the series rose, fell then rose again; ideas that were considered then discarded; and about the many major talents that started their careers working on various installments (i.e. Josh Hartnett, Paul Rudd). Using unparalleled access to players in this story, reporter Ronin Ro will reveal: *Why others didn't credit producer Irwin Yablans for co-creating the idea *How partners used lawsuits and threats to force Carpenter to create part two *Various unused ideas for sequels (including Quentin Tarantino's part 6) *Why each film had to present a different mask *How financier Moustapha Akkad snatched the rights from other partners *How Scream's Kevin Williamson and Jamie Lee Curtis saved the franchise with Halloween H20 *How the eighth movie - and rapper Busta Rhymes - almost doomed the series *Why John Carpenter derides the series - but almost returned for a few sequels *Why Universal washed its hands of the series *How Moustapha Akkad killed Clive Barker and John Carpenter's Helloween *Details about the "mysterious legal battles" that caused three five-year delays *Director Rob Zombie's nonstop battle with fans while creating two installments *How Halloween inspired, competed with, or lost ground to Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, Saw, Hostel , and the torture porn wave *The latest information about the upcoming Halloween 3D