Great Concept for a FRIDAY THE 13th Reboot That We’ll Never See
I’m a huge horror fan, and I love the Friday the 13th franchise, but I didn’t really care for the Michael Bay-produced reboot. However, its sequel, which was going to be directed by David Bruckner (The Signal) from a script written by Hannibal’s Nick Antosca, sounded like it would have been cool as hell and something fans would have probably embraced. Unfortunately, this concept will never make its way to the big screen.
HitFix recently had the opportunity to interview Bruckner, and it was in this interview that he explained what the reboot would have entailed:
"It was a proper reboot. The final version that we were working on was with a writer Nick Antosca, who writes for 'Hannibal,' or did, rather. It was a proper 'end of the summer' summer camp movie that took place in the late '80s...I like to say that 'Dazed and the Confused'...was a huge inspiration to me in how we approached the character relationships, just because that's a movie that captures a kind of a timeless -- even though it takes place in the '70s -- a very timeless, nostalgic experience. And it's very much -- you chart several characters at once, it's very much an ensemble piece, and you really are able to get at this coming of age vibe. I just wanted to see a movie where you're that invested in everybody and [then] Jason Voorhees [shows up]."
Wait a second… a Friday the 13th film with actual character development, where the audience actually cares about the characters?! What kind of insane slasher horror film would do such a crazy thing?! It's kind of hard to image characters in this world that aren’t just victims being relentlessly slaughtered. I mean, you can have that, but it’s a lot more powerful with real characters.
I think Cabin in the Woods is one of the few slasher films in recent memory that did a great job developing its characters. It’s a bloody shame this movie won’t happen. What do you think about the direction they were going to take the franchise?
Paramount Pictures is currently developing a new version of the film with Prisoners screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski. We have no idea what that will end up being like, but it will be released in 2017.