It seems the Friday The 13th remake has suffered the same fate as the kids at Crystal Lake. The long developed remake has been shelved, for good, by Paramount, who have pulled it from its originally announced release date of, surprise, Friday, October 13. The film will be replaced in Paramount’s schedule by Darren Aronofsky‘s Mother!, which will star Jennifer Lawrence.
The horror remake has long been in production, but it isn’t totally clear yet why Paramount have decided to pull the plug, though apparently the performance of Rings at the box office might have something to do with it.
Friday The 13th was originally remade in 2009 but opened to a very lukewarm reception and no sequels were commissioned. The series has always been the weaker of the big three slashers – behind Halloween and A Nightmare On Elm Street – less iconic than the former and far more generic than the latter, so perhaps Paramount realised the franchise garners very little interest from the general public anymore.
David Brucknor had been brought in to direct (The Signal, V/H/S), along with Prisoners writer, Aaron Guzikowski, to helm the project, and it was rumoured they favoured a found footage approach, which would have at least added some originality to the remake.
Friday The 13th isn’t the only Paramount release to be delayed, however. World War Z 2 has been pulled from its original June 9 opening, and although Variety stated the film hasn’t been canned, just moved to a new date, the date has yet to be announced by Paramount.
The first film had a notoriously troubled production so the sequel is simply following suit, it seems. Coincidentally, the sequel was originally going to be released opposite Tom Cruise‘s The Mummy, so it’s possible Paramount didn’t want to go up against such a box office draw in Cruise, or that fact could be totally unrelated.
The film was set to be written by Stephen Knight (Locke), but original director, J.A. Bayona, had dropped out. Star Brad Pitt was apparently trying to convince David Fincher to take charge of the sequel, but that seems like a huge longshot.
So it’s all over for Friday The 13th, and time will tell whether World War Z 2 suffers the same fate.
#Peace.Love.FridayThe13th
