Director Alexandre Aja Would Love To Make A Friday The 13th Movie

Noted horror director Alexandre Aja has revealed his hopes of one day directing a ‘Friday the 13th’ movie.

The French filmmaker broke through on his native soil with the distinctly above-average slasher movie ‘Haute Tension’ (released in the UK as ‘Switchblade Romance’), before heading stateside to direct a number of the best horror remakes of the century thus far, including ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ and ‘Piranha 3D,’ as well as producing his friend and collaborator Franck Khalfoun’s esteemed remake of ‘Maniac.’

While he hasn’t made another remake in five years – his most recent films being ‘Horns’ with Daniel Radcliffe, and new release ‘The 9th Life of Louis Drax’ – Aja seems to suggest to Bloody Disgusting that he’d jump at the chance to direct a ‘Friday the 13th’ if offered the job.

“I think ‘Friday the 13th’ was such a cool world because Jason became an icon and became such a cultural legend that it took like almost four movies to create the character.

“ …‘Friday the 13th’ has an amazing character and I think there is room and they have a script now that’s really really amazing, to do something that’s absolutely scary and the same time a way to re-establish the character for a new generation.

“I’m not the one doing it, but I will definitely go see it.”

Asked how he would bring back ‘Friday the 13th,’ Aja says he “would have tried to do something that would please me as an audience member… you need to do something that’s absolutely stunning, shocking and absolutely never goofy to make the right ‘Friday the 13th.’”

‘Friday the 13th’ was one of the dominant horror franchises of the 1980s, spawning its first 8 entries between 1980 and 1989. Four more films have come since, including 2003’s ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ crossover ‘Freddy Vs Jason.’

Despite the reasonable box office success of the 2009 ‘Friday the 13th’ reboot from director Marcus Nispel, studio Paramount and production company Platinum Dunes have struggled to get a sequel off the ground these past 7 years.

Several release dates have been set and then cancelled, and original director David Bruckner has departed the project. At present, Breck Eisner (‘The Crazies,’ ‘The Last Witch Hunter’) is attached to call the shots on the movie.

Naturally, as a filmmaker who has managed to make a name for himself directing mostly horror remakes, Aja also has some thoughts on where other horror remakes so often fall flat.

“You know most of the remakes I’m reading, most of the scripts I’m reading, are usually not to the level of the original… they are written by people that I feel don’t really understand the original so good, and sometimes they are completely different from the original, which then what is the point of using the title?

“With respect and love to the original movie, you take the DNA of the original movie, and you just try to enhance everything you have and keep what was working, and just try to make it better where you feel it was not working perfectly.

“Sometimes people are just, they are clueless as to why they are remaking it. They are remaking it because of the success, because of the title, and they end up making movies that are unwatchable.”

Let’s hope this isn’t the case when the next ‘Friday the 13th’ movie finally gets off the ground. At present the brakes are on the project due to a lawsuit against Paramount from Victor Miller, screenwriter of the original 1980 ‘Friday the 13th.’

Meanwhile, Alexandre Aja’s ‘The 9th Life of Louis Drax’ (starring ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’s Jamie Dornan and ‘Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul) is in UK cinemas now.

Picture Credit: Paramount, Dimension Films

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