Friday The 13th Producer Backtracks On ‘Origin Story’ Claims

It seems we may have misinterpreted producer Brad Fuller’s earlier remarks regarding the upcoming ‘Friday the 13th’ revival.

The producer told Yahoo earlier this month that the long-awaited relaunch of the 80s slasher franchise will see them “go back, and meet [the] family” of psycho killer Jason Voorhees; to which his fellow producer Andrew Form added, “You’re gonna meet Pamela, Elias, and Jason. And you’re gonna see how it all happened.”

However, it would seem we’re not going to see all this in quite the way we might have anticipated, as Fuller now tells iHorror that the next ‘Friday the 13th’ will not be an origin story after all – or, at least, not in a conventional sense.

“Origin isn’t really the right word for this movie… the word ‘origin’ got out and everyone’s calling it an origin film now, but that isn’t exactly the direction we’re taking.

“It’s more of an alternate world that we’re creating for Jason – an alternate space, alternate reality – in this film.”

Kind of a ‘Batman Begins’/’Casino Royale,’ with hockey masks and machetes, maybe? Sounds promising enough.

As a founder member of Michael Bay’s production company Platinum Dunes, Fuller has produced many of the most prominent horror remakes of the past fifteen years, notably ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’ ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ and of course ‘Friday the 13th.’

Most of these proved big commercial successes, but left a lot to be desired artistically. It’s encouraging, then, that Fuller indicates having learned from past mistakes:

“We went down the origin route with the second ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ film (‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning’), and I think when you go to deep into a character’s origin, the character stops being scary at some point.”

Still, Fuller notes, “I’m not worried about demystifying Jason by revealing parts of his back story, which most of the fans are familiar with.”

He confirms the new film will be set “between the late 1970s and the early 1980s,” and will be set at “a summer camp… [with] camp counsellors.” However, Fuller also backtracks on earlier claims that Jason’s father Elias will be seen.

“No, we haven’t decided whether or not Elias will appear in the film… that was a comment I made, which was a response to a question about whether or not Elias would be a part of this film.

“I said that including Jason’s father was an idea, a possibility, but it’s not at all a certainty that he’ll appear in the film. The main relationship is between Pamela and Jason.”

Jason’s mother Pamela - who, as any horror fan worth their salt knows, was the first ‘Friday the 13th’ killer - was played by the late Betsy Palmer in the 1980 original, and briefly by Nana Visitor in the 2009 reboot.

Still, while Elias’s appearance may be uncertain now, it probably won’t stay that way for long, as Fuller insists that “things are moving very fast, and we all know that these films can be filmed and then released very quickly. We’re now looking for a director and hope to start filming soon.”

Even so, Fuller could not confirm whether the film would be ready for its provisional 13 January 2017 release date, or the following Friday the 13th that October.

Alternatively, Fuller notes Paramount could simply release the film on “another date altogether” – but where’s the fun in having Friday the 13th’ when it isn’t Friday the 13th?

Picture Credit: Paramount

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