There are few horror movies in historical past as beloved as The Factor. This timeless traditional is commonly ranked among the many finest initiatives John Carpenter has ever labored on. Whereas remaking horror classics will be dangerous, Carpenter efficiently took the free idea of the 1951 B-movie The Factor From One other World and turned it right into a masterclass in paranoia and suspense.
Though The Factor was a shock field workplace disappointment and acquired destructive evaluations upon its preliminary launch, it later turned widespread as a cult traditional. This newfound recognition confirmed Common Footage that the movie had potential for a revival. Initially, a sequel to The Factor was pitched as a four-part miniseries by filmmaker Frank Darabont.
Persevering with the legacy of one of many best horror movies ever made was all the time going to be a problem, however Darabont is a director who has earned plenty of respect. Along with directing two iconic movies, The Shawshank Redemption and The Inexperienced Mile, Darabont proved that he might efficiently adapt Stephen King’s work, similar to Carpenter.
Stephen King, like Carpenter, has a robust and dependable fan base, so it is protected to say that something Darabont had deliberate to create would have been price watching. Nonetheless, Darabont’s model of the sequel to The Factor was finally canceled as a result of artistic variations with the studio.
What would Frank Darabont’s The Factor sequence have been about?
Frank Darabont was first approached by the SyFy channel to develop a brand new model of The Factor together with screenwriter David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. Johnson-McGoldrick had all the time thought of the unique The Factor to be one of the crucial influential movies in shaping his profession as an artist.
SyFy initially appeared focused on making a whole reboot that might be separate from Carpenter’s model of the movie, a lot as Carpenter’s model was not depending on the 1951 movie The Factor From One other World.
Nonetheless, quite than do a full-blown reboot, Darabont and Johnson-McGoldrick pitched a direct sequel that might open with the invention of the frozen our bodies of Childs (performed by Keith David) and MacReady (performed by Kurt Russell) by Russian scientists. This may resolve the primary movie’s ambiguous ending, which left audiences guessing as to what occurred to those characters.
Darabont’s objective was to replace The Factor and make it related to fashionable occasions. Whereas Carpenter’s movie served as a metaphor for the tensions between the USA and the Soviet Union throughout the Chilly Battle, Darabont’s model would have addressed post-9/11 issues about home terrorism and sleeper cells.
The sequence can be set 23 years after the occasions of Carpenter’s movie. Whereas the undertaking was initially pitched as a restricted sequence occasion, Darabont’s concepts have been a lot grander.
His idea prompt the opportunity of a full sequence, which might have included deeper themes resembling household drama, parts of Native American folklore, a creature origin story, and a number of other prolonged scenes, which might have required a a lot bigger finances.
Provided that SyFy had used the Battlestar Galactica miniseries as a launching pad for its eventual 2004 reboot, it is doable that the identical technique might have been utilized to Darabont’s The Factor sequel. The present might have began out as a miniseries earlier than increasing right into a full sequence primarily based on the success of its preliminary run.
Why was the sequel to The Factor cancelled?
Sadly, plans for a sequel to The Factor have been scrapped when the studio reportedly “hated” the script. Resulting from this disagreement, Darabont determined to go away the undertaking and work on The Strolling Useless as a substitute. Regardless that the sequel was canceled, The Factor remained a invaluable asset for Common Footage.
The studio ultimately produced a prequel in 2011, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton. Sadly, the 2011 prequel failed to differentiate itself from Carpenter’s unique movie and was a significant disappointment, each critically and financially. Not like the unique, it’s unlikely that the 2011 prequel will ever achieve cult standing.
In 2020, Carpenter hinted to Jason Blum that he was contemplating a reboot of The Factor, as its themes of isolation and concern have been particularly related throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, a subsequent assembly between Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Peacock did not result in something concrete and the undertaking was shelved once more.
Plainly the excessive requirements set by Carpenter’s unique movie have made studios and filmmakers reluctant to high the traditional, for concern of failing to stay as much as expectations. For these focused on revisiting the unique, The Factor is offered to lease or buy on Prime Video within the U.S.
