Frank Marshall To Produce Comedy Horror Cropsey

As there are revivals in the works of many of the great slasher movie franchises - ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’ ‘Halloween,’ ‘Friday the 13th,’ ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ - what better time to revisit the urban legend that inspired so much of the genre?

Variety reports that seasoned producer Frank Marshall is developing ‘Cropsey’ at Dreamworks. The script is by Richard Naing and Ian Goldberg (also writers on the upcoming ‘Friday the 13th’ reboot), although no director is named at present.

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The name ‘Cropsey’ may be familiar, especially to fans of lurid 80s horror, as it is the basis of one of America’s most enduring urban legends, popularly recounted around the campfire at summer camps.

With a great many slasher films taking place in summer camp settings, the Cropsey legend proved hugely influential on the genre. Perhaps most notably, the killer in 1981 slasher ‘The Burning’ was named Cropsey. A 2009 documentary of the same name also explored the legend.

Still, we shouldn’t anticipate anything quite so grisly from this latest ‘Cropsey,’ as reportedly it will be “an Amblin-esque project mixing horror and humor — a la “Gremlins” and “The Goonies.””

This is certainly a model Marshall is familiar with, having served as executive producer on both ‘The Goonies’ and the two ‘Gremlins’ movies. His impressive producer CV also includes the ‘Indiana Jones’ and ‘Back to the Future’ franchises, and more recently the ‘Bourne’ movies and this year’s ‘Jurassic World.’

Marshall has also a few noteworthy credits as a director, having stepped behind the camera for ‘Arachnophobia,’ ‘Alive’ and ‘Congo.’

Picture Credit: WENN, Touchstone