In an exclusive interview with SyFy Wire, co-owner of Platinum Dunes, Brad Fuller . explained why we haven’t seen a new Friday the 13th or A Nightmare on Elm Street film lately, and why we may not be seeing either for the foreseeable future.
Although not a surprise to fans (as a new Friday the 13th film was scheduled for 2017 but was removed from the release list), Fuller shed some light on the subject. The producer explained that “There (were) a couple of things. I think there was concern about the rights looming at that point. Paramount was concerned if they made that movie and the rights were not available… if you are going to make that movie, you want to be able to ride it for more than one or two movies. That didn’t exist in this rights structure. We were going down the road to make the movie, but, at the end of the day, economically and/or creatively, they didn’t want to make it. There’s this clause in the rights that the rights revert back to New Line. As that date became closer and closer, Paramount would have made one Friday the 13th movie and then New Line would have benefited if the movie was great. Then, New Line could have followed it up with subsequent movies. It put Paramount in a very tough position to go ahead and actually make the movie, and then us to reap the benefits if it was successful beyond that particular film.”
Some news outlets predicted that the cancellation was in response to horror sequels and reboots under performing at the box office (most notably Blair Witch and Rings),and Fuller acknowledged this, but he again reiterated that the rights and possible litigation were the primary contributing factor in cancelling the scheduled film.
Fuller did reveal that he liked the last “agile”version of Jason (from the 2009 reboot) and said “That was something we decided. The same way that zombies were not always moving around quickly and dazingly walking, we thought if we are going to make Jason scary, let’s have him run like a linebacker. That’s why Derek Mears was such a good Jason. There are a lot of reasons he was a great Jason, but he’s such a physical actor. We thought that made the character scarier. The audience comes to it with preconceived notions, which makes it impossible to satisfy everyone about it.”
When it comes to Freddy, Fuller was clear that there are currently no plans to continue the franchise, saying “Let me clarify that. I would always want to do another Nightmare Elm Street, but there have been no conversations about that at all. I have not heard that. I would love to hear that.”
Fuller was complimentary of the widely panned 2010 remake, and he praised Rooney Mara’s performance (and took credit for casting her in her in her first studio movie, and that he was surprised by the lukewarm reception by fans, stating that “I’m proud of that movie. I thought the visual effects were really good. To me, it felt elevated in terms of the way it looked and the way director Samuel Bayer shot it. It felt like an elegant movie. As a producer, it’s like asking me what the problems are with my kids. I guess I know them, but I want to think they are great. I really did love making that movie and when it came out, I was very proud of it. Up until that date, that was our most successful film at the box office, so it was hard to feel that the movie didn’t work in the way that some of the tweets made it feel.”
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