Friday The 13th Reboot In The Works With Original Director

It’s been revealed that a new Friday The 13th reboot is currently in the works, and it’s going to be helmed by the original movie’s director! This is huge news, for me at least, as I am a massive fan of director Sean S. Cunningham’s original 1980 horror slasher movie.

In many ways, I think this movie started my love of the horror genre. The first Friday The 13th movie was one of the movies that really got me into horror, and for good reason – it’s bloody good. Emphasis on the ‘bloody’!

The movie went on to spawn a bunch of sequels and even a remake and a pretty awesome crossover over the years. I don’t know why, but I have a real soft spot for Freddy Vs Jason, even though I know it’s not a great movie.

New Friday The 13th Reboot is in the works with the 1980 movie’s director

Credit: New Line Cinema

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Now, the Friday The 13th rights saga has been something that’s been ongoing for quite some time now. The original movie’s director, Cunningham, was recently involved in a lawsuit with original screenwriter Victor Miller, which has kept any entries in the franchise from getting off the ground for several years.

Despite the franchise including a whopping 11 Friday the 13th films and one crossover with A Nightmare on Elm Street, there hasn’t been a new outing since the 2009 remake starring Jared Padalecki.

However, recently it was announced that Miller and Bryan Fuller were developing a Friday the 13th prequel series for Peacock with A24, called Crystal Lake. I am actually really excited about this upcoming series.

Anyway, this new series actually gave the director new hope to get working on a new Friday The 13th reboot. Bloody Disgusting then revealed that Cunningham is now going to be working alongside screenwriter Jeff Locker on the project.

This franchise has been embroiled in legal disputes for years

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According to Locker, the pair hope that the announcement of the Crystal Lake series will help settle the dispute and reach an amicable agreement about Cunningham’s use of the rights. However, their backup plan is to create a sequel that will fall within their legal rights despite certain limitations.

Here’s what Locker had to say on the matter:

Sean hired me to do a rewrite on The Night Driver and after working closely with director Jeremy Weiss and him on that, we naturally got to talking about Friday the 13th and House. Jeremy and I pitched our dream reboot of Friday the 13th – with Sean’s blessing to keep developing it with him.

Obviously, the prequel TV series has reignited interest about a new film so we’re hoping the surrounding excitement will inspire both sides to come together and give us Jason on the big screen again for the first time in 14 years, but we also have a Plan B for a sequel to the original we think fans will absolutely love and should avoid any legal entanglements.

I really hope they manage to get this project off the ground. At the moment, it’s in development, and sometimes movies can end up in development Hell for years, but something tells me that if anything can get out of Hell and come back from the dead, it’s a movie about Jason Voorhees.

What do you make of this news? Are you looking forward to watching this new Friday The 13th reboot when it’s finally released in cinemas? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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