A sequel to the 2007 film was first announced at the 2008 30 Years of Terror Convention; at the time, Zombie passed on doing a sequel to his remake, feeling as though he had no energy left to make another Halloween film. Two years later, after unsuccessful attempts to draft a script for a sequel, the Weinstein brothers, Malek Akkad, and Rob Zombie, who had a renewed interest in the film, secured a deal for the director to return. For Halloween II, Zombie decided he wanted to focus more on the connection between Laurie and Michael, and the idea that they both share similar psychological problems. Zombie also wanted the sequel to be more realistic and violent than its 2007 predecessor. This time around, Zombie had trouble finding a place to include John Carpenter's original Halloween theme m