Casting What-Ifs
Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee turned down Loomis; Carpenter wanted Anne Lockhart; Dennis Quaid was supposed to be Bob
In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:58:29Read transcript
- The hosts say Pleasence was the third choice and that Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee both turned it down because the pay was too low; Lee, remembered as Dracula, would have been weird casting.
- Cushing was coming off Star Wars; Star Wars and Halloween back to back would have been iconic.
- The hosts describe Pleasence as having peaked as a Bond guy and being in The Great Escape, and say he hosted Saturday Night Live in 1981, is considered one of the weirdest hosts, and kept going through the sequels.
- The hosts say Carpenter wanted Anne Lockhart, daughter of June Lockhart from Lassie, but she was in other stuff, so they went with Jamie Lee, whose mom was in Psycho.
- The hosts say Dennis Quaid, then dating P. J. Soles, was supposed to be Bob but was doing another movie, and tell a screening story in which Quaid offers to fight a heckler.