John Carpenter once considered a return to the Halloween 4 that made Michael a phantom, and during the early '90s, made a serious bid to regain the rights to the franchise.
As recounted in the book Taking Shape II: The Lost Halloween Sequels, while Carpenter was working with New Line on In The Mouth Of Madness, they ed forces to bid for the rights to Halloween. There are precious few details about Carpenter's proposed story, other than it involved Michael Myers being unleashed on a space station. Carpenter was unhappy with the direction the movies took after Halloween III, feeling they copied the same basic story as the original film. Being a fan of '50s sci-fi and feeling that Myers was no longer scary, Carpenter likely felt a more tongue-in-cheek approach could refresh the Halloween movie series.
Why John Carpenter's Halloween In Space Idea Never Happened
During this period, Miramax was hoovering up the rights to horror franchises like Hellraiser and Children Of The Corn, and would later churn out endless STV sequels to both. They had their sights set on Halloween and successfully outbid Carpenter and Miramax for the property. Producer Moustapha Akkad had clashed with Carpenter on his vision for the series previously - having rejected his Halloween 4 pitch - and he likely wasn't a fan of the Michael in space notion. While it might be a coincidence, New Line later sent Michael's rival Jason to space with 2001's Jason X.
Halloween In Space Wouldn't Have Worked (& Other Horrors Prove It)
Even more coincidentally, Miramax/Dimension blasted Pinhead into space for 1996's Hellraiser: Bloodline. Miramax ultimately produced Halloween 6 - which has TWO different cuts - which was released in 1995. The film attempted to tie up the loose ends of the previous film and explain why Michael turned evil, but it was a convoluted mess that underperformed. In light of the film that was made, John Carpenter's Halloween in space doesn't sound like the worst notion - but it wouldn't have worked. Speaking with Fangoria in 1993, he stated of his idea that it "... would have changed it, correctly and totally changed it, forever, so that it couldn't go back."
He also confirmed his plans to direct this Halloween in space concept. It appears that Carpenter wanted to both reclaim his creation and drive a stake in it so no more sequels could be produced afterward. Seeing Halloween H20; he left after his request for a large fee was turned down.
