Producers Talk Friday the 13th Remake

Fans have been eagerly waiting for the release of the upcoming remake of Friday the 13th. I previously had done a couple stories that featured the new one-sheet, first look at Vorhees and close-up images of Jason himself! Adding to the hype Crave Online recently did an interview with the producers of the new Friday the 13th remake (Brad Fuller and Andrew Form) and I found some interesting tidbits that horror fans of the original series will find pretty exciting!

Brad Fuller intially talked about the process of getting the remake to the screen. He said, "as soon as they brought it to us, we jumped right on board. It was an arduous journey to get the rights cleared. Even after a studio approaches you, there's a lot. There's a long process of trying to figure it out. It probably took almost two years from that initial phone call to the script." He continued, "we went through three incarnations of writers before we got the one that we wanted. Once the tone of the movie was right, then we went all systems go."

Tone of the movie, definately perked my ears! How did Platinum Dunes plan on the look and tone of Jason and Friday the 13th. Fuller spoke briefly on Jason's vibe saying, "through it all we were always, always adamant that we wanted to make a movie where Jason Vorhees is a brutal killer. Where he runs and it's real and it's really horrifying." (If you saw the footage from Comic Con you know this too be true. That final scene with Jason running was out of control! I would seriously crap my pants if I saw Jason coming at me like that.) He conituned, "what we wanted to do is take it back to what the original movies were, which was a movie that took place at a camp with a guy who is a ruthless killer and who's terrifying and not a joke and not doing stupid things. We want it to be real and horrifying. That was what we were always working towards, was to make him feel real and scary."

The feel of Jason raised the question just what the remake would do to Jason? Would they be adding anything like what was done with Halloween remake done by Rob Zombie? Brad Fuller quickly chimed back, "That's not what we're doing. I don't want to misconstrue it. It's not that. In our movie, Jason Vorhees is a guy who lives in the wilderness and he tracks. He traps his food and he's got his world that he doesn't want people infringing on. If you infringe on his world, he's gonna kill you." (Music to my ears!) Fred Topel of Crave Online peered a little further and asked if they would add to his childhood? Brad Fuller added, "No. We did that in Texas Chainsaw: The Beginning and I think one of the reasons that that movie didn't do as well as the first one is we made...the mistake potentially there was Thomas Hewitt was a sympathetic character. I don't think audiences want their killers to be sympathetic. I think they want them to be hell bent on one thing and one thing only. So we've eliminated that here. I think we have a device, a flashback that we're trying to figure out how it works into the movie, if it works into the movie. Beyond that, this is Jason Vorhees doing what he does best."

The flashback has me very enticed! Will we see Jason drown? Will that be eliminated? Does the new cast know of Jason's legend? Here Brad Fuller added some nice info saying, "This is a world where the kids in our movie are aware of Jason Vorhees certainly and of what happened at Camp Crystal Lake. Hopefully if we did our job right, it's not a bunch of kids sitting around and people disappearing and people are wondering what's happening. I think that what attracted us to the script is a lot of the killing happens at the same time so that you aren't doing that." Fuller's statement definately got the mouth watering, but how many people are gonna die? Fuller continued, "First of all, we have 13 people to kill in 95 minutes which is more than we've ever had to do. But we really tried to do it. We don't want audiences to go, "Jesus, those kids are dumb." You can't avoid it on some level because you're going to a horror movie but it's something that we're definitely always striving to eliminate."

If there is killing one thing that always went hand-and-hand in Friday the 13th films was nudity! Platinum Dunes to this point have not included nudity in any of their remakes. Topel asked the producer would the viewers be left again with no T&A? Andrew Form quickly added, "Well, we don't let you down." To add further, Brad Fuller said, "There are so many boobies. I would say to you that this is our seventh movie that we've done as a company. This is our seventh movie together. We've done seven movies. We've never had any nudity. We've made up for it all in this movie." So fanboys can rejoice that Platinum Dunes has broken the mold with their company to hold true one of the main staples of the horror series. The difference this time, is that Jason will not be killing the teens while having sex, like we have grown so accustom to with original films. Fuller explained, "Listen, we don't have any violence when there's nudity. There are kids, there's a lot of kids having sex. That's part of what happens." Form added, "They're not just nude having sex. They do other things nude." Fuller and Form begin to banter back and forth, "They waterski nude" "They love it, yeah." Crave then posed the question about punishment of sex and drug use, like Jason use to. (Jason in the original series killed the teens for having sex and using drugs because he had drowned while two counselors were having sex when they were suppose to be watching him) Fuller explained, "No rules, we threw out the [rules]. The rules are everyone dies. That's the rule. Everyone's promiscuous nowadays. And you're in his turf."

That led me to question whether Jason will drown in this film because of the carlessness of the camp counselors? The film is building after the fact of the original films. Like the Fuller had said earlier, "This is a world where the kids in our movie are aware of Jason Vorhees certainly and of what happened at Camp Crystal Lake." The producers however have kept extremely tight-lipped about the origin and flashback that was previously mentioned.

The theme of Friday the 13th is legendary and not to be messed with. Luckily, the producers also realized that from the get go. "Yeah, we locked that down before we shot a day of film," Form had said and Fuller added, "I think you have to keep that theme song in the movie. I mean, it's disrespectful not to." When I saw the footage from Comic Con and heard the original theme it instantly put me over-the-top with antcipation of the film. I have not disliked any of Platinum Dunes films and really liked Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hitcher. Those were both real kick-ass gritty remakes that did justice and in some ways surpassed the original. I am hoping for the same here with Friday the 13th!


To read the full interview: (click here)


Thoughts on what the producers have to say about Jason? Anything upset or really make you worry? I think they got the vibe down, just wondering what's up with the origin! The origin could definately make or break the film! Does the younger generation even care?