If you are an up-and-coming director, it’s not always the best idea to reboot a cherished franchise, especially if you only have a few films under your belt. But if those films are pretty much homages to the source material you are trying to revive, it could be a perfect match.
That’s what Terrifier and Terrifier 2 director Damien Leone would like to do with the Friday the 13th franchise. This series has been around for over 40 years and its fanbase is pretty picky when it comes to adding to it. They might be even more staunch than say Star Wars or Marvel fans. Some in those fan groups find it hard to embrace diversity let alone the thought of a reboot.
However, Leone is a fan, he tells Slash Film in an interview, and he has been for a very long time. Even though he doesn’t have an official pitch yet, he definitely has some ideas.
“I’ve been on record for quite some time now saying if I could ever remake one slasher film, it would be ‘Friday the 13th,’” he said. “Jason was always my favorite slasher since I was a little kid, and I think that there’s a way to … I mean, my approach would be to keep it in the ’80s, honestly. I would have it take place in the early ’80s. I would try and make him as scary as possible because I feel like that’s something they kind of lost as the movies went along. You just start getting too comfortable with these villains and you need to be scared of them again.”
Leone has created one such villain; his very own Art the Clown, the sadist mime in his Terrifier series. Fans might agree with his statement about making Jason scary again because they shelled out over $15 million to see Terrifier 2 last Halloween. That film is even getting a theatrical re-release next month. Leone says in the interview that he has spoken to industry peeps about his ideas on a Friday reboot, but, “I think I’m still a little too obscure on that Hollywood list of people that they would approach to direct that film.”
He shouldn’t sell himself short. David F. Sandberg wasn’t that well known before he landed a franchise grail. He directed Annabelle: Creation before going on to direct both Shazam! movies. And director Marcus Nispel wasn’t a household name when he got the job rebooting Texas Chainsaw Massacre or an actual Friday the 13th remake in 2009.
The Friday the 13th franchise is a hot property indeed; that cannot be denied. It could probably be made for a few million dollars but has the potential to make hundreds more. The only thing stopping any studio from getting their hands on it is an ongoing IP lawsuit over who owns which killer Voorhees. But, if Leone did a direct remake he wouldn’t even need one of them.
Leone adds: “I’ve been told, ‘Listen, everybody and their mother wants to make that movie. It’s a long list.’ So unfortunately, I don’t think I’d get to make it now, but maybe when they reboot it in the next 20 years, I’ll be able to take a crack at it. But that would be a dream project and so would ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street.’ […] I think there’s a lot of interesting stuff and scary stuff you can do with Freddy that we haven’t seen in a long time. The hard thing about ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ is just finding that new Robert Englund. That would be the hardest thing, of course.”
For people who can’t wait to travel back to Camp Crystal Lake, a Peacock series is in development which is a prequel to Friday the 13th.
