What can we expect from Rob Zombie's "Halloween"? For starters, he describes his film not as a prequel, as rumored, but rather as "a remake with more back story built into it," and plans to make the film less about babysitters in peril and more about the man behind the mask.

"I want the lead character to be Michael Myers," Zombie said. "He's not just a faceless thing floating around in the background and then you focus on these girls. I feel that that's where you can make it different and that's where you can make it more intense."

 "I felt the character of Dr. Loomis just popped in and out when they needed somebody to say something dramatic," Zombie observed. "I wanted his story to feel more intertwined with Michael in a way that means something, which they did in the original, but sometimes it feels like he disappears for a long period and then just pops up to go, 'He's evil!,' and then he disappears again for a while."

Zombie's eyes light up as he talks about casting his Loomis, and names ranging from Jeff Bridges to Ben Kingsley turn up on his very, very loose "what if?" list. "There is no shortage of late-50s, early-60s male actors that are amazing and would like to work more, probably much like Donald Pleasence at the time [he was cast as the original Loomis]," Zombie said.

Even the jarring 5/4-time piano melody of the film's main theme will be tweaked slightly, though Zombie plans to keep it rooted in the original. "It was the simpleness of it that became creepy," Zombie said. "It was sort of like the scary version of the opening credits for '[It's] The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.' "

They're minor changes (certainly compared to the character development he's got up his tattooed sleeve), but Zombie hopes they'll go a long way to putting his unique stamp on a horror franchise in danger of being crushed under the weight of seven sequels, each less inspired than the one before. "I think a lot of the sequels didn't work because they were just sort of doing an imitation of that movie, and you can't do that," Zombie said. "You have to come from a genuine place of inspiration with what you want to do."

So with a script and timetable in place, Zombie is now moving on to casting and location scouting. "We're right at the beginning of when this all begins," he said. Of course, "this" refers to much more than moviemaking. It also means scrutiny and debate from a legion of hard-core horror fans. It means the watchful eyes of a studio hoping that a blockbuster can be reborn. And for Zombie, it means satisfying both of those ends while also making sure not to suck. Or, as the man himself concluded, "You have to completely reinvent the wheel, but keep the people that love the original wheel thrilled. It's a tricky balancing act, but I think it's totally doable."