Director Sean S. Cunningham, who directed 1980’s original Friday the 13th, returns to help develop a franchise reboot with screenwriter Jeff Locker.
The Friday the 13th franchise appears headed for another reboot, with original director Sean S. Cunningham returning to help with development.
In an interview with Bloody Disgusting, screenwriter Jeff Locker revealed that not only is he and filmmaker Jeremy Weiss collaborating with Cunningham on an original project called The Night Driver, but also plan to help him reimagine the infamous 1980 summer camp slasher. “Sean hired me to do a rewrite on The Night Driver and after working closely with director Jeremy Weiss and him on that, we naturally got to talking about Friday the 13th and House,” Locker said. “Jeremy and I pitched our dream reboot of Friday the 13th – with Sean’s blessing to keep developing it with him.”
Friday the 13th Returns to Its Roots
News of a Friday the 13th reboot comes on the heels of Peacock’s upcoming prequel series Crystal Lake from Star Trek: Discovery co-creator Bryan Fuller. Locker believes the new series will do more good than harm to Cunningham’s reboot plans. Locker continues, “Obviously, the prequel TV series has reignited interest about a new film, so we’re hoping the surrounding excitement will inspire both sides to come together and give us Jason on the big screen again for the first time in 14 years, but we also have a Plan B for a sequel to the original we think fans will absolutely love and should avoid any legal entanglements.”
1980’s Friday the 13th followed a group of camp counselors preparing for summer at Camp Crystal Lake when they get murdered one by one a mysterious killer. It is eventually revealed that the seemingly friendly Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) is the killer, who’s out for revenge due to the drowning of her son Jason decades earlier. Produced on a shoestring budget of $550,000, the film went on to become a huge smash earning $59 million worldwide. Nine sequels followed with undead adult Jason (who, in the third film, gets his signature hockey mask) as the star killer and his popularity with horror fans led to his famous on-screen battle with Freddy Kruger in 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason.
The first attempt to reboot the franchise came with Marcus Nipsel’s Friday the 13th in 2009, where the events of the original film were condensed into the opening sequence with Jason showcased as the central killer. Sequel plans were tossed around including a found footage premise and a script titled Friday the 13th: Camp Blood – The Death of Jason Voorhees by the reboot writers Mark Swift and Damian Shannon. All sequel plans eventually stalled in part due to legal issues with the original film’s screenwriter Victor Miller, who will be working with Fuller on Crystal Lake.
Cunningham’s Friday the 13th reboot and Peacock’s Crystal Lake do not currently have planned release dates.
Source: Bloody Disgusting
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