Additional Details for the FRIDAY THE 13TH Reboot Reveal It Will Be a Period Piece
Platinum Dunes has been trying to get a new Friday the 13th reboot off the ground for years. The last we heard was that the film was delayed again, and before that there was news that The Crazies director Breck Eisner was looking to direct it, which is the case.
We've heard a lot of interesting details about this reboot. Some say that the movie will not tell and origin story and others say it will introduce Jason's dad. We now have some additional details thanks to producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form, who recently did an interview with Collider.
Talking about why the development of the film was taking so long, they explained that there were a lot of obstacles to get through. One of the main ones had to do with some rights issues between Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. They went on to say that one of the big issues was that the studio wanted to make a shitty found footage movie:
"Then there was an execution issue. At one point, the studio wanted us to make a found-footage version of that movie and that was deeply concerning to us because we didn’t think we could execute the movie in the right way if it was a found-footage movie.
“No, Jason is a POV movie. So, it was very hard to wrap our head around how you would do a Friday the 13th that was found footage, knowing that we really need the Jason perspective of watching. We didn’t want to break the DNA of that. We also battled: do we do a sequel to the original? Do we pick up where we left off with Jared and Amanda at the end of the movie? Somehow, that didn’t find a home. So, it’s been eight years. It will be eight years since we made the last one. I’m here to say that we found the location. We have found the lake, we have found the camp. We found an amazing script by Aaron Guzikowski. Breck Eisner is directing the movie. That movie is shooting in early Spring.”
I couldn't be happier that they are ditching that found footage idea. That would have just been such an annoying film. The site did learn a few new details regarding the film, including the fact that it will be a period piece. If Jason's father is involved, I assume that it will take place sometime in the '70s or '80s but that's just speculation. They also say the movie will unsurprisingly have a hard R rating. I don't see how you could make a Friday the 13th film and not have it be hard R. The film will shoot in Georgia, and don't expect it to be released in 3D or IMAX.
Fuller and Form seem to have a handle on what they want this Friday the 13th reboot to be. One thing that they don't want to do is disappoint the fans. They went on to say:
“There’s been a lot of mileage between the 1st one and the 13th one. What we don’t want to do is alienate the audience who hasn’t seen the preceding 12 Friday the 13th movies. Aaron Guzikowski’s job, as challenging as it is, is to come up with a movie where if you haven’t seen any go the other ones, you can still come and see this one and love it and not feel like you’ve missed out on anything. And if you have seen the other ones, we want this to feel fresh. That’s what took the longest amount of time: coming up with a story and then executing a script that fulfills both those mandates.”
Hopefully, they can pull it off. I'd love to see a new Friday the 13th movie that kicks ass, unlike the last time they tried to reboot it in 2009. Like I said, there's been some intriguing stuff revealed about the film in the past and you can read up on all of that stuff here.