The days of a movie franchise merely spawning an endless stream of big screen sequels, prequels, side-quels, and other quirky spinoff varietals is long gone. In the case of Friday The 13th, the kitschy ’80s slasher, it’s not only slated for another theatrical feature but a small screen version is also in the pipeline.
Announced last April, the TV series is under the care of franchise creator Sean Cunningham. Cunningham’s ambitious goals for the show are to re-imagine the series’ flagship villain Jason Voorhees across many time periods. Lucky for him, one of two writers attached – Bill Basso – worked on the Terminator series, albeit as a special effects guru on T2. So, how might that temporal narrative device be explored on the show? Simple. It’s going meta.
Cunningham recently put it an appearance at the Monster Mania convention in New Jersey, at which he offered an update on the show. That in itself is newsworthy considering we’ve heard little about its status since last spring. Thanks to the folks at FridayThe13thFranchise.com, who were in attendance, we’ve a spate of new story details to pore over:
“Sean Cunningham confirmed interest from the CW in regards to pickup for the tv show. According to him, the basic premise focuses on the REAL city of Crystal Lake, and the effect that the serialized films had on its real life counterpart. This allows them to reimagine Jason in a more grounded reality, as the films would be based off the real life killings that took place at the Camp. (ie, both the Hockey Masked Jason and a more serious backwoods inspired killer will be making appearances throughout) “
That brief snippet delivered by one of the site’s reporters rouses similarities to the underrated Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon. That indie slasher follows a budding serial killer who lives in a world wherein all movie monsters/villains are real. For the Friday The 13th show to incorporate that same tactic would almost certainly draw further comparison. That’s not to say it’s a bad idea, though. Not at all. Having two killers – both diegetic – romping the grounds of the camp and city at large sounds like a total hoot, with plenty of opportunities for reinvention.
Interest from a genre-centric network such as The CW bodes extremely well for the series. Its success with comic book and novel adaptations (Arrow, The Flash), as well as original content (Supernatural) would make it an ideal home for Jason’s adventures.