Gretel & Hansel Director Would Be “Thrilled” to Direct a Friday the 13th Movie

The Friday the 13th franchise might have run into some legal troubles recently, but if he had the opportunity, director of the upcoming Gretel & Hansel Osgood Perkins would be “thrilled” with the opportunity to direct an entry into the series. Perkins’ first films, The Blackcoat’s Daughter and I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, lean much more into crafting an unsettling atmosphere as opposed to delivering straightforward gore, so it’s unknown what his take on the slasher series would be, but with there no definitive end in sight for the series’ legal troubles, we might not get to see his vision of the series in the foreseeable future.

“There was a time when I was kind of… I made the rounds… the only “guy” I wanted to be was… I would’ve happily been the guy to do Friday the 13th again,” Perkins shared with Bloody Disgusting‘s The Boo Crew podcast. “The rights to that are kind of like a real mess…it’s a hard one. And there’s a weird thing like, you can have the rights to the title but you can’t have the rights to the mask. The mask and title are held by different people – I think LeBron James, actually, is involved. It’s the kind of thing like, you can’t have one without the other.”

The current situation is that Victor Miller, who wrote the script for the original film, was granted the rights to the series, a claim which the director of the original film, Sean S. Cunningham, then disputed. Cunningham claims that, despite having only come up with the film’s name, Miller was essentially his employee, so the rights to the franchise should remain with him.

In the original film, Jason Voorhees‘ mom was the killer and he never got his mask until the third film, so it’s possible there is an outcome where Cunningham earns the rights to the character of Jason and his iconic hockey mask but isn’t allowed to use the “Friday the 13th” title, though fans of the franchise would prefer a more reasonable solution.

“I would do that. I’d be thrilled to do that,” Perkins admitted. “That’s probably the one for me. I didn’t want to do Halloween, for instance. I felt like that had been done. Jason is my guy. Also, it’s the thirteenth one. Just call it ’13’ or something.”

The filmmaker was so interested in the property that he read one of the more recent scripts that the studio was attempting to bring to life before legal troubles stagnated the series.

“The screenplay that I read was written by the guy who wrote Prisoners, and it was good. It was sort of a remake of the original, and that’s what I’d want to do,” the filmmaker admitted. “Kinda remake the original, with the mom, and the camp, and all the stuff. And put it in the period. Yeah. Maybe.”

Stay tuned for details on the future of the Friday the 13th franchise. Gretel & Hansel lands in theaters this Friday.

Would you like to see the director’s take on the franchise? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!