Why The Next Friday The 13th Movie Should Be A Prequel

Why The Next Friday The 13th Movie Should Be A Prequel

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If and when the Friday the 13th lawsuit ends, the next installment should be a prequel to give Jason and the Voorhees family a proper backstory.

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Why The Next Friday The 13th Movie Should Be A Prequel

Friday the 13th fans are still patiently waiting for a reboot and, based on the franchise’s history, it might be best to revamp the series with a prequel. The horror series first debuted in 1980 with the release of Friday the 13th, a movie written by Victor Miller and directed by Sean S. Cunningham. The film was developed as a way to cash in on the success of 1978’s Halloween. Unlike Michael Myers in the Halloween franchise, Friday the 13th’s masked killer, Jason Voorhees, didn’t become the primary villain until the first sequel. Since 1980, the slasher series developed twelve feature films, in addition to video games, novels, comic books, and an array of merchandise.

At the center of the original movie was Camp Crystal Lake, a newly reopened summer camp, which was once the site of brutal murders. When the new group of camp counselors started being picked off one by one, the killer revealed herself as Pamela Voorhees. Her young son, Jason, drowned at the camp two decades prior when irresponsible counselors weren’t watching him. Pamela reacted by murdering the counselors before lying in wait before the camp reopened. Despite being the focus of an urban legend, Jason was indeed alive and continued what his mother started, killing those who set foot near the camp.

Since the first official reboot of the franchise in 2009, the Friday the 13th film series has encountered periods of developmental hell. There have been numerous attempts to revive the franchise, but nothing has come to fruition. Based on studio delays, rights issues, and a troublesome lawsuit, Jason has remained absent in the world of film. When the series does eventually reboot, which is the current trend among horror franchises, Friday the 13th should ditch the idea of a sequel, and give viewers a full-fledged origin story.

Friday The 13th Prequel Ideas Were Recently In Development

Why The Next Friday The 13th Movie Should Be A Prequel

Following the 2009 reboot attempt, Paramount Pictures embarked on another revival of the beloved slasher series. By 2011, the studio acquired the full rights to the franchise, but the new installment’s release date kept getting pushed back until it was set to land in October 2017. The script, written by Aaron Guzikowski, would have served as a prequel of sorts, taking the plot back to the ’70s for a Jason Voorhees origin story. Paramount was working with Platinum Dunes to co-produce, and the latter’s co-owner publicized the plans of focusing on a younger Jason while confirming that Pamela Voorhees would also be involved.

According to details from Guzikowski’s drafted script, the story under the working title of Friday the 13th: Part 13, would have focused on Camp Crystal Lake in 1977. Jason, who would still be a child at that point, wouldn’t have served as the killer of the camp counselors. Instead, mayhem would have been at the hands of his father, Elias Voorhees, the camp’s park ranger. Pamela went on to kill her husband before embarking on her own massacre, leading to the events of the original Friday the 13th. This prequel would have followed the canonical bullying and drowning of Jason, giving Pamela more motivation to target the irresponsible counselors. By the end of the script, a teenage version of Jason wearing a variant hockey mask would have reappeared for one last interaction with the movie’s final girl.

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Aside from the prequel that never came to fruition, Clint Ford (Dragon Ball Z) wrote a prequel screenplay, which he titled Friday the 13th: The Beginning (via Ain’t It Cool). The script focused on a young Pamela Voorhees and her mental breakdown, leading to her original Camp Crystal Lake killings. The story would have also dived deep into Jason’s lore, and how his deformities affected his childhood. The reports of Ford’s speculative script came just a month after Lebron James announced interest in rebooting the Friday the 13th franchise with his production company, Springhill Entertainment.

Why The 2017 Friday The 13th Reboot Was Cancelled

Why The Next Friday The 13th Movie Should Be A Prequel

Over a decade has passed since a Friday the 13th film was released, but in that time, Paramount’s 2017 reboot came the closest to becoming reality. Damian Shannon & Mark Swift originally had plans for a sequel for the first reboot with a film titled Friday the 13th: Camp Blood – The Death of Jason Voorhees. It would have been a joint effort between Paramount and New Line Cinema with a story focused on Jason in a snow-covered winter setting. By February 2011, Paramount was ready for production, but New Line wasn’t. Matters became more complicated when Warner Bros. relinquished part of their rights, forcing Paramount to find a new co-producer in Platinum Dunes.

These changes took a lot of valuable time, pushing the planned released date from 2016 to 2017. By then David Bruckner (V/H/S) was set to direct the forthcoming installment, and TV writer Nick Antosca was on board to develop a new script. By mid-2016, Bruckner left the project and Guzikowski was brought in with his prequel concept. Shortly before the reboot’s release was pushed from January to October 2017, Breck Eisner went into talks to direct. In January of that year, the casting process had begun with filming slated for March, but in February, Paramount officially cancelled the project and gave the release date to Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!, starring Jennifer Lawrence.

There was speculation that Paramount axed the Friday the 13th reboot just a mere six weeks before production was set to begin because of Rings’ underwhelming box office numbers. The studio likely feared that there wasn’t enough interest in another horror reboot. In 2018, the rights of Friday the 13th reverted back to New Line and Warner Bros., and interestingly enough, a reboot of Halloween debuted that same year. Not only was it a major success, but it proved that reboots of classic horror franchises can find new life.

Friday The 13th’s Legal Troubles & Status

Why The Next Friday The 13th Movie Should Be A Prequel

Many fans have wondered why it has been so difficult to materialize a new installment, and a lot of the delay has to do with the Friday the 13th’s ongoing legal troubles. The original film’s producer Sean S. Cunningham and Victor Miller, the man who wrote the movie’s screenplay that kicked off the franchise, have been in an intense court battle. The ongoing lawsuit was made public in 2018 when Gun Media was forced to stop the creation of new content for Friday the 13th: The Game. Under copyright law, an original author is allowed to revoke a copyright agreement 35 years after it was granted. In this case, the time had passed and Miller attempted to take back the rights of the franchise from Cunningham and Horror Inc., Cunningham’s company.

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Despite claiming that Miller was a work-for-hire, and therefore, the rights remain with his employer, the courts ruled in Miller’s favor. Cunningham has since filed an appeal and his argument was heard in court in February 2020. Despite the notion that the lawsuit was expected to come to an end in June, but as of the time of writing, both parties are still in limbo. It’s unclear if Miller will retain the rights or if the courts will side in Cunningham’s favor. Even that, however, doesn’t mean a settlement will be reached. At some point, some type of agreement will need to be reached, giving Friday the 13th a future. Based on James’ 2018 announcement and Jason Blum’s hopes of producing a future Friday the 13th movie, there’s certainly enough interest. It just might be a little longer than before Jason returns to the big screen.

Why A Friday The 13th Prequel Would The Best Option For A Reboot

Jason Voorhees already serves as an iconic figure in horror history, but his backstory was a complicated one. For much of the franchise, he was a hockey-mask-wearing madman equipped with a machete or any weapon he could get his hands on. His background, however, was extremely tragic. Based on the original Friday the 13th, a young Jason attended Camp Crystal Lake, which was where his mom worked as a cook. It was 1957 and Jason, who was deformed and mentally disabled, was bullied by those at the camp. At one point, the counselors threw him in the lake and since he wasn’t a good swimmer, he drowned. Pamela then avenged her son’s death by slaughtering a new set of counselors when the camp reopened.

Starting with Friday the 13th Part 2, Jason, now a mute adult, served as the key antagonist. He also served as the primary figure in 2009’s reboot, which re-imagined the first four original movies. Despite the various installments, much of Jason’s backstory, including details regarding his elusive extended family, remain unknown. A prequel could fill in those blanks while also showing the complicated character through a sympathetic lens.

Similar to Guzikowski’s scrapped script, Friday the 13th could be shown in a new light by centering on the Voorhees family, and how simply they transformed into killers. By taking the prequel route, the story could shift to a more psychological horror tone, rather than death and gore. Analyzing the psyche of a young Jason and his family members would be a new avenue for Friday the 13th, and it could avoid the cookie-cutter narrative of traditional slashers. By the time the lawsuits end and a new movie can get underway, audiences will be ready for it—there’s already a massive following, and it’s been over a decade since the last Friday the 13th was made. A prequel is the best idea because it’ll revitalize a franchise that has gone stale at times by putting the focus where it belongs: on Jason and his story, which has always garnered a significant amount of interest in the past.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/friday-13th-movie-reboot-prequel-best-reason/

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