Horror seems to be everywhere.  Successes like IT, Get Out, Happy Death Day, Etc. have taught us that this underrated genre is not to be overlooked. Remakes especially are resurging. Take Halloween, The Grudge and even Suspiria for example. Classic horror icons are being reborn, but whatever happened to the beloved Jason Voorhees? Seems like the masked killer is in bit of a law-binding standstill.

In the 80’s, Jason was unstoppable. Spawning over 12 installments in 29 years, the hockey-masked killer went from the bottom of Crystal Lake to space and back. It would seem likely that we would finally get an answer to our long awaited Friday the 13 reboot.

The last time we visited Camp Crystal Lake was when Paramount decided to kill the series indefinitely. Speculation from a source close to both Platinum Dunes owner Michael Bay and the lawsuit between Friday the 13 series creators Sean S. Cunningham and Victor Miller spoke on the reasons behind the cancellation. As it turns out, some of those rumors were true.

According to Collider, Platinum Dunes Producer Brad Fuller and Andrew Form were busy promoting their film, A Quiet Place.

“We never got a clear answer from Paramount as to why that movie got shut down,” said Fuller while speaking to Rooster Teeth. “I think at the end of the day that administration, which is no longer there, didn’t see horror as a viable part of what they were doing. In addition, they were coming off Rings and that did not help. For studio heads that are not fans of horror there is not a tremendous amount of glory in it other than the financial. Many of these studios want to make big movies with big movie stars and that administration could never get excited about it. I think the rights now have reverted back to New Line.”

Now that the ball is in New Line’s Court, will a move be made soon? It seems unlikely until the lawsuit is settled. For those who are not familiar with the case, here is a quick summary:

Back in 2016 Victor Miller, the original screenwriter of Friday the 13, seeked to recoup his beloved creation as his own. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this is possible thanks to a provision in copyright law that allows authors to terminate a grant of rights and reclaim full ownership. There are loopholes and loose ends that have made this case tricky. Thus spawning this dragged out battle for the characters and storyline.

Fuller spoke to JoBlo about the odds against this favor, “Fans think it’s so simple, that if we want to make the movie we can go make it, and that’s just not the case. There are rights issues; originally, Warner Bros. owned the rights, then Paramount had them for a couple of years, and now I think the rights are reverting back to Warner Bros. At the same time, there is this on-going lawsuit with Victor Miller. If there is a lawsuit hanging over the rights, it’s problematic, you can’t really make the movie until that gets settled. And now the movie is at New Line, and we’ve made a lot of movies with those guys, but that’s not our home studio anymore.”

Nonetheless, Fuller and Form would still like to make a new Friday the 13 film. “If [New Line] want to make that movie with us, we will drop what we’re doing to make that movie.”

Seeing that we have not seen a new Friday the 13 film since 2009, it is looking more likely that this wish for a reboot will not be granted anytime soon.

Blumhouse did comment on their interest in adopting Jason into their wicked household. In an interview with CinePOP, Jason Blum was asked if there were any franchises he would love to reimagine. “Besides Halloween? You know, I really wanted to do Friday the 13. I would love to do that movie. Maybe someday we’ll get to do that one.”

With Blumhouse’s heavyweight champions under his powerhouse, it would be interesting to see what could be done with the series. For now, we wait in the quiet waters of hope until a disfigured beauty reaches out.

 

Would you be interested in seeing a new entry in the Friday the 13th franchise? Tell us in the comments! For more behind-the-scenes info on the series, check out this upcoming documentary on Jason Goes to Hell