For what’s seemed like an age, fans of Jason Voorhees have discussed the possibility of the undead killer returning from the grave. Now, The Hollywood Reporter has put an end to years of fan debate on whether or not we’ll ever see another Friday The 13th film.
According to their report, Friday The 13th and Jason Voorhees now belong exclusively to Paramount Pictures. Fans of the series will know that Warner Bros. co-owned the rights. But why on earth have they given them up? It turns out that the deal between the studios went down back in January.
When Christopher Nolan’s Syncopy production label made a deal with Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. were eager to get a piece of the action. Of course, why wouldn’t they be? After all, they were responsible for Nolan’s Batman outings which were all huge hits. The trilogy’s combined worldwide box office takings stand at over $2 billion.
In order for Warners to get up off their knees and stop begging Paramount for involvement in Nolan’s next film, Interstellar, a deal was struck. Now the two rival studios have reached an agreement. Paramount now has Warners rights to co-finance the next Friday The 13th film, as well the rights to produce another South Park movie.
Due to both studios having equal dibs on both franchises previously, this made reboots a complex issue. Hence, Warners has given them up for a slice of Nolan’s latest. It doesn’t end there though. Paramount might now own the rights to bring our favourite potty-mouthed scamps and the masked maniac back, but there’s one condition. They’re only entitled to both titles for the next five years. That’s half a decade to roll out as many films as possible. The 2009 Friday The 13th reboot made $91 million worldwide on a meagre budget of $20 million, so expect a new Friday The 13th entry per year for the next five then.
