A producer friend of mine from film school had read some of my early screenplays - some experiments I had done to see how fast I could write something.
The idea of acting on the first 'Halloween', it didn't really apply to my eventual work, working with actors.
So when 'Skatetown' came up at Columbia and Ray Stark's studio, the idea was to do it quick. They wanted it out in the fall, and they gave me the treatment on July 4th weekend! I wrote it in four days, and, you know, it kind of looks like it.
I made that decision around the time of 'Halloween,' whether I wanted to continue trying to be a singer and rock and roll player or get into movies.
Escape' really helped launch my career as a writer/director, so from there I just kind of took off on my own.
Actually, the most difficult time I had was not in the mask. The first time you see 'Michael Myers', he doesn't have his mask yet, and he's jumping onto the back of a car. from the insane asylum.
I know it will be the thing that'll be my epitaph: They won't say anything about my movies, I'll be this guy in a rubber mask.
