It’s all a matter of rights
Platinum Dunes worked themselves into corner in 2003 when they produced The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and saw to it that Leatherface was not going to return for a sequel by tearing off one of his key appendages. Still, that didn’t stop producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form from going back in 2006’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, a prequel that inspected lil’ Tommy Hewitt’s origins.
In early ’07, I heard solid word through the grapevine Form and Fuller were talking with New Line about a third Leatherface romp (details). Since then, New Line was absorbed by Warner Bros. and Platinum Dunes gobbled up a few more remake properties (A Nightmare on Elm Street and Rosemary’s Baby) leading one to understandably presume Leatherface’s days at Dunes were done.
“The issue for these movies is that since we’re not the rights holders – the rights holders are entrusting their children to us – and in the case of ‘Chainsaw,’ Kim Henkel, Tobe Hooper and Robert Kuhn gave us two opportunities to do that,” explains Fuller when Shock catches up to him on the set of Friday the 13th. “If they want to come to us and say, ‘You guys are welcome to do a third one,’ I can’t imagine we’d say no, because we love those characters. But until that happens, we have to keep looking forward.”
Henkel is most certainly moving ahead. Last month, he revealed to the press he is writing a Chainsaw film of his own (details) without Dunes’ involvement. When we relay this information to Fuller, he expresses surprise. Form, on the other hand, was well aware of this news.
“They’ve been trying for a long time to do that,” say Form, clarifying, “I don’t think [Henkel] can do the Hewitt family [story], it would have to be the Sawyers. New Line owns the Hewitt family.”
Source: Ryan Rotten
