Slasher fans may be rejoicing soon as there are signs that the long Jason Voorhees drought is coming to an end. The iconic hockey-masked killer of the Friday the 13th movies has been trapped in legal limbo due to long-running litigation between franchise producer Sean S. Cunningham and the original film’s writer, Victor Miller. Now, after delays caused by appeals, COVID-19, and the death of the judge ruling on the case, it seems that there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
This news comes via Corey Feldman, who played Tommy Jarvis in Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter. He’s given an interview with MovieWeb in which he discussed his career, casually letting it slip that Cunningham and Miller may have reached an agreement:
“Interestingly enough, some guy came up to me at a party, this is true, two weeks ago, and said he has resolved the rights issues. He’s a lawyer, and he has resolved the rights issues around Friday the 13th, and that things are working out, and now they’ll be able to start making Friday the 13th movies again.”
This is good news for Feldman, who’s been pitching a Tommy vs Jason movie for a while now. In The Final Chapter Tommy was a 12-year-old boy who ended up finishing Jason Voorhees off with a machete, an impressive feat for anyone, let alone a preteen. Feldman says he can see that story being continued in the same style as the 2018 Halloween:
“If they were doing things the right way and they were listening to what the fans really want, and they had their ear to the ground and the pulse of what’s going on in pop culture society, what they should do is revamp the idea of bringing Tommy back [40] years later to go up against his nemesis the same way they did with Jamie Lee Curtis and the Halloween reboot. Now, of course they’ve taken that idea and redone that five different ways… Well, all we’re asking for is one, one Tommy vs. Jason sequel. That’s all we’re asking for.”
It’s also been mooted that this concept could be expanded to include multiple survivors of Jason’s rampages, with Tommy leading them in one last push against the unstoppable homicidal monster. But Feldman (quite rightly in my opinion) thinks that sounds kinda dumb:
“There’s been the idea that every survivor from every Jason movie should get together and have Tommy guide them through this one last adventure against Jason. That was an idea that I had been told a while back, which is okay. I think even that’s a little bit hokey. I don’t think you need all that.”
But I’d personally love to see Stephen King’s take on the franchise, which he’s pitched as an existential horror told from Jason’s point of view exploring what it’s like to be a traumatized child killed over and over again by attractive groups of teenagers.
Let’s hope for more news soon.
