The last time we saw Jason Voorhees on the big screen, it was in a 2009 reboot which may have made a healthy profit, but certainly didn’t sit well with fans or critics. However, being Hollywood, money talks and of course, another Friday The 13th was ordered up. Unfortunately, though, it never got off the ground and has seemingly slipped into development hell. That’s a real shame, too, as it sounded like the filmmakers had some pretty exciting ideas for the flick.
Screenwriter Nick Antosca sat down with Bloody Disgusting (via Cinema Blend) recently for an interesting interview, where he discussed why things fell apart, what the plot of the film would have entailed and a lot more, which all paints an intriguing picture for what could have been if the reboot took flight. Of course, it might still one day come to fruition, but for now, we’ll have to cling onto Antosca’s juicy insights, which only make the whole situation that much harder to swallow.
Talking first about what went wrong, the writer said:
I know Platinum Dunes was ready to go — they were enthusiastic. I heard various things — Paramount changed their mind about the 80’s setting, they wanted more mythology. Also, there was some corporate changeover in the ranks there, and the people who were in charge when I was hired were no longer there. The new folks may have wanted to put their own stamp on it. It happens. I was curious to see the version they did make, and I was disappointed when that fell apart too. It shouldn’t be that hard to make a Friday the 13th movie.
On what tone/feel the project would have had, Antosca states that the goal was just to make “a classic Jason” film:
“We just wanted to make a classic Jason movie, with kids at camp who get slaughtered, and great kills and some characters you actually enjoy hanging out with till they die. David Bruckner and I talked about how to make a consistent Jason throughout our movie, but nod to the different Jasons. I prefer supernatural Jason, personally. And I loved the imagery of him under the water.”
Continuing on, the scribe touched on the topic of the franchise’s convoluted mythology, saying that they were going to cherry pick the best elements:
“We just accepted from the beginning that we would have to pick and choose elements of the mythology to make a coherent one within one movie. It’s obviously not consistent over the course of the franchise, but you have a lot to work with. We adjusted the timeline a bit to make sense.”
Finally, and perhaps most interesting of all, Antosca revealed that his hope was to have the new Friday the 13th be inspired by classic 80s films like Fast Times at Ridgemont High as well as Dazed and Confused, Jaws and some of John Hughes’ work. Of course, the movie would also be set in the 80s, too, with the screenwriter noting:
“To me, that just feels right. That’s the Jason movie I want to see. It’s the same impulse that fed into ‘Stranger Things’ and a lot of 80s nostalgia that we now see popping up. It was in the air a few years ago. I’d still love to see a new Friday the 13th set in the ‘80s.”
Alas, it seems that we may be waiting a while longer to see a Friday the 13th that takes place in the 1980s. Though hopefully not too long. Currently, the franchise rests at Paramount, but the rights will soon be back with Warner Bros. and at that point, maybe something will get going. After all, the studio’s now seeing great success with their Conjuring universe and It looks set to be a huge hit as well. As such, it wouldn’t surprise us at all if this is the next horror franchise they go after. Fingers crossed, eh?
