Writer Hiring, Shooting Date And Creative Direction Discussed For Friday The 13th 2016

With the announcement over two weeks ago that the upcoming Friday The 13th film was having it's release date pushed back for a second time, fans have become understandably frustrated that there has been six years that has passed since the last film was distributed in theaters and there has been no solid start in sight for a new Jason Voorhees adventure. Hollywood can be a very frustrating place, especially since Mark Swift and Damian Shannon already had a sequel script written and ready to go after 2009. Due to a fundamental shift in Warner Bros. plans for Horror films and the budgets associated with producing them, the sequel to the 2009 film was shelved.

Once Paramount reclaimed the rights to distribute new Friday The 13th films in June 2013, Platinum Dunes, who already had a partnership with Paramount, was again tasked with bringing Jason to the silver screen. Although there have been some bumps in the road with script development and creative direction, it looks as though we may finally see that light at the end of the tunnel.

In a phone interview with Producer Brad Fuller, Esquire got the dirt on the tentative upcoming schedule for the next Friday The 13th chapter in the franchise. First off, it looks like an idea of the story is close to being locked down as writers are going to be hired very soon.

"Several writers have worked on scripts for the film over the years, but Fuller says, at this stage, they're finalizing a direction and settling on "two or three different" writers, who they hope to hire in the next two weeks. That May 2016 date is in sight."

It's an encouraging revelation as getting the script hammered out will lead to crew hiring and a clear production schedule. Speaking of schedule, Fuller hinted at a shooting start date and it definitely falls in line with a May 2016 release.

"It will involve Jason Voorhees. It will involve kids having sex and smoking weed. They will be at camp. Which is a big one for Fuller, a former kid camper. "Some movies you do for some reasons and some you do 'cause you just love the source material. And truly this is something that we all love here." Fuller plans to shoot Friday the 13th at the end of the summer because the weather is still nice and it's easy to take over a camp for cinematic slaughtering purposes."

Also, Brad Fuller insisted once again that Platinum Dunes will not be employing the Found Footage style for the new film, although we found out recently that it was still in the cards, but not necessarily settled upon completely.

"Fuller insists Friday the 13th will not follow the found-footage trend, nor will it mimic the cost-shaving tactics of Platinum Dunes' recent output. Somewhere between 2009's $20 million shine and The Purge's three-to-four million sweet spot lies this envisioned Friday the 13th venture."

Another interesting revelation from the Esquire interview was the idea of possibly exploring Jason's ability to continually come back to life in each film. Although Brad Fuller mentions it's never been explored in the series, we know that Jason X was based largely around that concept.

"(David) Bruckner got Fuller thinking about Jason's unquestioned ability to die and reanimate in each Friday the 13th film, what he sees now as the franchise's unique attribute in film history."

One final thought on the informative interview about the new film was the funny anecdotes about Fuller's interaction with the fans over the past six years about the process of getting a new film post 2009.

"More than the Friday the 13th hockey mask that looms over his workspace, it's fans that haunt Fuller. The producer is active on social ("for better or worse," he says with a laugh), and hears it all. "There is nothing more consistent that I get asked about than Friday the 13th. Nothing comes even close. Nightmare doesn't come close. The Turtles don't come close. I get direct message tweeted every day, multiple times a day about Friday the 13th."

We commend Fuller for sticking in there with the fans and taking the brunt of the harshest criticism, but we all look forward to a new film in the franchise and it sounds like production news might be coming very soon. For the entire interview with Esquire, please make sure to visit their site and find out more about the film and it's production history.