Much like its hockey-masked killer, the Friday the 13th franchise is apparently immortal, surviving hell, outer space, a bout with Freddy Krueger and a 2009 reboot. That said, it’s taken a rather long time to get to the series’ much-anticipated 13th instalment — but now we’ve gotten some intriguing news.
Image: screen cap of the great Betsy Palmer as Pamela Voorhees in Friday the 13th (1980).
According to the Reel Word, once the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie drops, Platinum Dunes (Michael Bay’s production company) can turn its full attentions to reviving Crystal Lake’s most notorious camper. And producer Brad Fuller offered some cryptic but still rather enticing hints about what the new Friday the 13th movie script might entail.
First of all, IT WILL NOT BE A FOUND FOOTAGE FILM, thank the horror gods, but it will be an origin story. And Jason’s mother, Pamela Voorhees — fan of cable-knit sweaters, large knives, arrows, stalking and gruesome revenge — is going to be a part of it:
Attached to write the screenplay is Aaron Guzikowski, who earned himself wide acclaim for writing the 2013 Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal-starring thriller Prisoners. Guzikowski handed in a draft, Fuller and co. had a look at it, loved what they read and decided to start moving forward.
“Aaron’s 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.”
So, is this an origin story?
“Origin-ish, but it’s an origin that no one has seen before. Obviously Pamela’s there, but it’s a little bit different from what you’ve seen before.”
“Origin-ish” is a cagey way of putting it, but we’re with Bloody Disgusting — which called our attention to the Fuller interview — in wondering if this means we’ll finally get to meet Jason’s father after all these years.
Also, maybe we’ll get to see what life was like at Casa Voorhees before that fateful summer at Camp Crystal Lake. Did li’l Jason have siblings? A fear of swimming? A hockey fetish? A machete fetish? Triskaidekaphobia? Prisoners was a memorably grim and intense piece of work, so it will be very interesting to see what Guzikowski came up with. The much-delayed movie is now aiming for a Friday, 13 January 2017 release in the US.