Deadline is reporting that Breck Eisner (The Crazies, Sahara, The Last Witch Hunter) is in talks to direct Paramount Pictures‘ upcoming Friday the 13th reboot. In an interesting bit of trivia, his father Michael Eisner ran Paramount during the dawn of the original franchise in the early ’80s, making this a bit of a legacy gig for the new Friday the 13th director.
Platinum Dunes producer Brad Fuller spoke earlier this summer about where Prisoners and Contraband writer Aaron Guzikowski’s script might take the beloved Jason Voorhees.
“Aarons story has great characters You kind of have to understand Jason Voorhees, so we go back and we kind of started over and work our way forward,” said Fuller. When asked to clarify it was an origin story, he stated it will be ”Origin-ish, but its an origin that no one has seen before. Obviously Pamelas there, but its a little bit different from what youve seen before.”
Pamela, of course, refers to Jason’s momma, who was the psychotic villain of the original film before Jason himself stepped up to the plate for all the remaining sequels. As for the rumors of the next movie being found footage, Fuller admitted that the tired device was considered but ultimately (thankfully) abandoned. As it stands now, the new film’s plot is “under wraps,” but the smart money would be that it centers on hockey-mask wearing killer Jason Voorhees stalking and slashing teenagers at Camp Crystal Lake.
The Friday the 13th franchise currently consists of ten original “solo” films, the 2003 crossover Freddy vs. Jason, and, most recently, the 2009 reboot. There was also a short-lived television series that, despite its title, was unconnected to the plot of the film franchise. A new Friday the 13th television series is also currently in development for The CW.
Paramount currently has Friday the 13th is set for release on January 13, 2017.
