‘Friday the 13th‘ is one of those slasher film franchises that managed to build a huge fanbase despite negative reviews. The credit goes to Sean S. Cunningham, who helmed the first film leading to a lineup of films that continued for a long time, and of course, Jason Voorhees, who ended up being the most merciless killer in the history of slasher films.
The last film in the franchise was released a long time back in 2009. Just like the rest of the installments, the critics did not like it much as it did not introduce anything new to the franchise but it turned out to be a box-office success. It’s been 14 years and people are waiting for a sequel. Let’s check what has been the progress so far.
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Warner Bros. Pictures And Paramount’s Attempts To Make A Sequel
Producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form were interested in making a sequel to the 2009 film and a release date for 2010 was also confirmed. However, the release date was later changed to TBD and Fuller revealed through social media that the sequel will never happen.
Paramount and New Line Cinema were the owners of the film and they were already facing some financial issues because of which they decided to produce less number of films each year. According to Collider, Brad and Andrew hinted that the sequel might be released in 3D like the third film which was released in 1982. Damian Shannon and Mark Swift still worked on a script that was wrapped up in 2011.
Warner Bros. acquired the rights to the franchise in 2013 and according to Derek Mears, the studio collaborated with Platinum Dunes to produce a sequel. David Bruckner was hired as the film’s director and he planned to make it as a found footage film. Bruckner left the director’s chair in 2015 and there were discussions with Breck Eisner to helm the film. Paramount then set a release date for the sequel which was confirmed to be October 13, 2017.
Platinum Dunes was searching for an actor who would portray the young version of Jason Voorhees. However, the project was canceled by Paramount in February 2017 and a few months later, Shannon and Swift disclosed that they were working on a sequel which has been named ‘Friday the 13th: Camp Blood – The Death of Jason Voorhees.’
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Further Attempts To Revive The Sequel
Writer Victor Miller who worked on the first film, which was released in 1980, revealed in 2016 that Horror Inc. acquired its copyright to the screenplay from Miller’s transfer of copyright to the company’s predecessor, the Manny Company. Miller then sent a Notice of Termination to the company in January 2016 and reclaimed the rights to the screenplay.
Producer Sean S. Cunningham later clarified that the original screenplay was written by Miller as a work-made-for-hire for the Manny Company. If that is true, then Miller cannot claim the rights to the original screenplay.
Following a trial at a federal court in Connecticut, Miller acquired the rights in 2018. There were reports coming out the same year that LeBron James and SpringHill Entertainment would be the co-producers of the sequel and Clint Ford began wiring a script for a prequel named ‘Friday the 13th: The Beginning.’
Director of ‘Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives’ disclosed in 2019 that he wrote a script for a sequel to his film which would have ignored the events of the rest of the installments. Another update that came out in January 2023 stated that Jeff Locker was working on a reboot and a direct sequel to the first film with Jeremy Weiss and Sean Cunningham.
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