While Jason Voorhees is technically back from the dead, the real meat of Friday the 13th is in seeing the big lunk on the screen, and for a new Friday the 13th movie, that’s proving to be a long-winded business.
After the legal rights wrangle between Sean Cunningham, Victor Miller, and Horror Inc. left Camp Crystal Lake lying destitute for many years, the franchise lives on in separate ways, with Horror Inc and Victor Miller creating a Jason Universe and Sean Cunningham keeping film rights. But there’s been trouble on the water both sides of the lake.
New Friday the 13th Movie Dead in the Water?
A24 and Peacock had a Crystal Lake prequel/reboot show in the works with Hannibal’s Bryan Fuller as showrunner, but he exited over creative differences recently, setting that project back.
So a Friday the 13th movie with the nod from Cunningham, that’s bound to be a cert, right? Well, no it seems, as Cunningham revealed movie studios are seemingly fearful of pumping money into the Voorhees corpse without guarantees of a significant investment.
Cunningham was speaking at Texas Frightmare Weekend. There, he participated in a panel reuniting the director and producer of Friday the 13th with original star Adrienne King and FX legend Tom Savini,
Cunningham apparently didn’t get into any of the grubby war of rights for the fracnhise, but had that above gloomy update. He explained that studios are less likely to take a punt on a horror movie with a decent budget in a post-pandemic world without assurances it can do well in theaters.
While Cunningham did not mention any particular studio when discussing this, New Line is the name still most likely associated with making a new Friday the 13th movie. The company isn’t shy of having a hand in a modern entry in an 80s horror franchise. It co-produced last year’s Evil Dead Rise, which definitely made use of a relatively modest budget to great effect.
In the meantime, Jason Voorhees fans can vent their ongoing frustrations in Warner Bros. multiplayer brawler MultiVersus, where the undead killer is set to become a playable fighter alongside Agent Smith from The Matrix.
Alternatively, Chris Nash’s upcoming ambient slasher In a Violent Nature has the flavor of a new Friday the 13th movie if it were somehow accidentally fused to a relaxing sounds YouTube video.
