The last official entry into the Friday the 13th franchise was the 2009 reboot of the concept, and while the rights to the series have been in legal limbo for years, A24, Bryan Fuller, and Peacock aimed to revive the concept with the TV show Crystal Lake. After Fuller himself personally revealed that he had parted ways from the project earlier this year, a new report from TheWrap sheds more insight into what went down with his exit, how close to production the concept got, and how Charlize Theron was seemingly on board to star as Jason Voorhees’s mother Pamela.
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As fans have already seen with Fuller’s Hannibal, Crystal Lake wouldn’t be a direct remake of the specific narrative of Friday the 13th, with the outlet confirming that that idea would have been a spiritual reboot of the first four films in the series. Despite being three months from the start of production, TheWrap claims sources revealed that Crystal Lake “was plagued by inexperienced production executives making questionable decisions, problems with the show’s writing staff, and conflicts between showrunners and executives.”
As any Friday the 13th fan can tell you, while the hockey mask-wearing Jason Voorhees is a key component of the franchise’s appeal, that version of the character doesn’t appear until the third film, with it instead being his mother who is killing off camp counselors in the debut entry. Early speculation about the project among fans thought the series would deviate from those more iconic components entirely, though TheWrap detailed, “Each season would be a ‘deconstruction’ of the first four Paramount movies. The series would incorporate lore from several sequels but remix that material” while a source confirmed to the outlet that they would be able to include the iconic mask and lore from follow-up films.
Last year’s writers’ strike didn’t help matters much, as the significant progress on writing the series was put on hold for an extended length of time, and once the strike was resolved, TheWrap cites a number of challenges revealed to them by sources about what the major obstacles were when it came to completing the series’ scripts.
In addition to Theron circling the project, Splice director Vincenzo Natali and Carrie (2013) director Kimberly Peirce were reportedly set to direct episodes, as was Scream writer Kevin Williamson. As previously reported, Williamson’s episode was set to be an hour-long chase scene, which TheWrap claims would have been set on a frozen Crystal Lake. The outlet also cites A24 sources who sound committed to bringing the project to life somehow, with Channel Zero and Brand New Cherry Flavor‘s Nick Antosca rumored to be a possible candidate, who previously worked with Fuller on Hannibal.
Stay tuned for updates on the Friday the 13th franchise and you can head to TheWrap to read the extensive report.
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