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Back in the 1980s, if you were any sort of a fan of Paramount’s clever Halloween knock-off Friday the 13th, then practically every year of that decade offered up the opportunity for you to trek to the local multiplex to check out a new sequel in that storied franchise. Between 1980 all the way up through 1989, no less than eight Friday movies entertained and frightened audiences with its seemingly never-ending storyline about masked killer Jason Voorhees and his quest to rid the world of a long line of hard-partying summer camp counsellors. It was a true Golden Age of slasher cinema, one that aficionados of the genre assumed would carry on forever. Until, one day, it didn’t…
When Paramount sold off the Friday the 13th franchise to New Line Cinema after a disastrous theatrical run on Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, the yearly release pattern of the series became sporadic: A full four years passed between the ill-fated eighth chapter and New Line’s first foray, 1993’s Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. The lull in time between releases didn’t get any better from there, with eager Jason fanatics having to soldier on a full nine years before a new set of victims were rolled out onto movie screens (2002’s entertaining Jason X). Things got back on track when 2003 saw the release of the long-delayed Freddy vs. Jason, only to succumb back into slow-motion with a quasi-reboot of the series in 2009’s simply titled Friday the 13th. That movie had a decent showing at the all-important box-office and it felt like – finally! –the misadventures of the denizens of Crystal Lake (AKA ‘Camp Blood’) was back on track…
Thirteen years after the release of the reboot film, fans are still waiting on a follow-up. And though further hockey-masked nightmares felt like a sure-thing once or twice over those ensuing years, nothing has ever materialized, thanks in large part to a never-ending litany of legal actions between the first film’s writer-for-hire Victor Miller and the franchise’s producer Sean S. Cunningham over property rights to the movies.
Recently, some small bits of sunlight have emerged in that ongoing lawsuit and, with a spot of brand-new information about the immediate future of Friday the 13th coming at us from those ghoulishly brilliant characters over at Bloody Disgusting News, it feels almost as if fans are lining up for the renaissance of their beloved slasher franchise.
Producer Roy Lee is no stranger to admirers of horror films. This erstwhile visionary has had his creative finger in such soups as Blair Witch, the Poltergeist remake and The Ring. In recent months, it’s come to light that Lee and Doug Davidson’s production house Vertigo Entertainment is attached to produce any forthcoming Friday the 13th flick alongside LeBron James (yes, that LeBron James) and his own production shingle SpringHill Entertainment. Naturally, Lee and Co. have had to cool their heels until something could be worked out between stalwart fathers of the Friday series, Cunningham and Miller. In a recent interview with Bloody Disgusting, Lee seemed to hint that news about a brand-spankin’ new Friday film is imminent.
When specifically queried about the immediate fate of the Friday the 13th franchise, Lee played it tantalizingly coy and frustratingly brief: “That one is something that I would love to talk about. You may be hearing something by year’s end…on that front.”
So what gives? Will we, as Lee seems to suggest, finally capture that magical unicorn known as a new Friday the 13th sequel? Or are we in for thirteen more years of ownership rights lawsuits and countersuits?
As hardcore fans of this particular franchise, Vents will keep everyone up-to-date on all the latest news about the future of the Friday the 13th series!
