Jason Voorhees vs Michael Myers Will Never Happen
It is quite amazing to see the thirst for more adventures of Jason Voorhees by fans of the franchise over thirty five years after its inception. Equally, Halloween fans also yearn for more Michael Myers on film more than three decades later. Even though Halloween inspired Sean Cunningham to create Friday The 13th, the two horror franchises have really never felt intertwined, even though they competed at the box office in the late 1980's. On the opposite end, Freddy from the A Nightmare On Elm Street films has always been a direct competitor to Jason in box office dollars and even creative direction of the films. There was always a feeling of trying to outdo the other, even in the lower rated films in the respective franchises. As a fan of Friday The 13th, I never felt that competition with Halloween.
When it was announced yesterday that the rights to distribute the Halloween franchise in theaters was lost by Dimension Films, the World Wide Web was ablaze with theories of what studio will gain control of Michael Myers and if Jason Voorhees might square off against him in their very own versus movie. I am here to say now that this will NEVER happen.
Freddy vs Jason was a culmination of nearly fifteen years of ideas that were spearheaded by New Line Cinema in their purchase of the rights of Jason Voorhees from Paramount with the sole purpose of making that one film. It was a natural fit to get these two characters on one screen together because of the aforementioned box office history as well as the fact that they could play off of each other since Freddy could spew one liners and become the narrator of the impending clash of modern horror titans. When Freddy was gearing up to fight Jason, Mr. Voorhees was in Hell and Freddy was able to enter his universe. Now, Jason has in essence been rebooted and what kind of mystical storyline would bring Michael into the fold?
There just isn't the history between Michael and Jason and their respective stories do not lend enough ideas to make their own versus movie. The characters do not talk and it would be extremely difficult to find a common goal between the silent killers that would bring them together.
Sure, the whole versus idea is still en-vogue today with a Captain American Civil War film coming out and Batman facing off against Superman, but would anyone really be excited enough to see two silent figures slicing away at each other in an hour and a half film? Maybe for nostalgic reasons, but the film itself wouldn't be sustainable for a long enough period of time and would fade away without much thought in a few years.
Who knows where Halloween will end up and with all of the trouble these studios have had of late locking down a script to make a new film for Halloween or Friday The 13th, perhaps a pairing could happen in the future. However, I doubt any of the longtime fans will be around to see that day.
When it was announced yesterday that the rights to distribute the Halloween franchise in theaters was lost by Dimension Films, the World Wide Web was ablaze with theories of what studio will gain control of Michael Myers and if Jason Voorhees might square off against him in their very own versus movie. I am here to say now that this will NEVER happen.
Freddy vs Jason was a culmination of nearly fifteen years of ideas that were spearheaded by New Line Cinema in their purchase of the rights of Jason Voorhees from Paramount with the sole purpose of making that one film. It was a natural fit to get these two characters on one screen together because of the aforementioned box office history as well as the fact that they could play off of each other since Freddy could spew one liners and become the narrator of the impending clash of modern horror titans. When Freddy was gearing up to fight Jason, Mr. Voorhees was in Hell and Freddy was able to enter his universe. Now, Jason has in essence been rebooted and what kind of mystical storyline would bring Michael into the fold?
There just isn't the history between Michael and Jason and their respective stories do not lend enough ideas to make their own versus movie. The characters do not talk and it would be extremely difficult to find a common goal between the silent killers that would bring them together.
Sure, the whole versus idea is still en-vogue today with a Captain American Civil War film coming out and Batman facing off against Superman, but would anyone really be excited enough to see two silent figures slicing away at each other in an hour and a half film? Maybe for nostalgic reasons, but the film itself wouldn't be sustainable for a long enough period of time and would fade away without much thought in a few years.
Who knows where Halloween will end up and with all of the trouble these studios have had of late locking down a script to make a new film for Halloween or Friday The 13th, perhaps a pairing could happen in the future. However, I doubt any of the longtime fans will be around to see that day.
