Former Friday The 13th Director Dishes On Failed Friday The 13th Reboot Attempt

The start to the new year brings us some new information on what Paramount was attempting to create for a rebooted Friday The 13th film when director David Bruckner was brought on board to push their new take on Jason Voorhees to the big screen. In an interview with Fangoria about his segment in the upcoming anthology film Southbound, David discusses what Paramount originally had in mind for the new Friday The 13th film and what happened to make him detach himself from the project.

From Fangoria
“When I came on board that project,” he tells us, “Paramount was exploring whether or not they could do a found-footage FRIDAY, and they brought me in to crack it. I had some very specific ideas; if we were going to do that, I felt it needed to be single-camera. I didn’t think you could bring a whole bunch of media into the room, and that we had to do a kind of classic found-footage movie.

“So writers Richard Naing and Ian Goldberg [who scripted Andre Øvredal’s upcoming THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE and are working on CROPSEY with James Wan producing] and I set out in earnest to see if there was a movie there,” Bruckner continues. “There are certain restrictions to found footage; just the fact that you’re locked into a single perspective almost makes the slasher formula impossible, because characters tend to wander off on their own all the time and get knocked off. Also, part of what defines some of the greatest slashers is the additional perspective. That was a really fun obstacle to tackle, and we ended up structuring it a little bit more like a monster movie. All the mythos surrounding Jason Voorhees opened up a lot of possibilities, and for a moment in time, we had a story that took place in the ’80s, which worked with the found-footage conceit. It was a return to form in a lot of ways, and we really focused on the characters.”

Ultimately, the studio point of view toward the handheld approach changed, and HANNIBAL’s Nick Antosca was brought in as scripter. “We were set free from that mandate,” Bruckner recalls, “and did a draft that was not found-footage. We were allowed to truly explore what the film could be as a proper ’80s reboot—what that would look like. My take on it was that I wanted to do DAZED AND CONFUSED meets Jason Voorhees [laughs], a genuine last-day-of-school coming-of-age story. Nick wrote a great draft, and we really wanted to see that movie come to life. It was a very exciting process for me.”

We have read Nick Antosca's script and the "last-day-of-school coming-of-age story" angle that David mentions is more like a last-day-of-camp story and it would have really pleased Friday the 13th fans with a touch of mythology thrown into the mix. At any rate, it's too bad we have not received an new film yet, but it seems as though Paramount is indeed trying to make something special for fans to enjoy and make a lots of money at the box office!