10 Things You Didn't Know About Michael Myers
9. He's Named After A British Distributor
Michael’s reign of terror began in 1963 – the same year, weirdly enough, that future Austin Powers star Mike Myers was born, but that’s not what inspired John Carpenter to use the name.
Carpenter’s second film, Assault On Precinct 13, opened to mixed reviews and disappointing box office in 1976, with even Carpenter’s colleague (and future director) Dan O’Bannon expressing his distaste at the scene where a young girl is gunned down. The film looked like a flop that would be quickly forgotten.
At the Cannes film festival a year later, however, the film garnered favourable reviews from British critics, which were enough to impress a UK distributor who snapped up the British distribution rights and turned it into a hit. The distributor’s name was Michael Myers, and a legend was born.