Movies
‘Friday the 13th’: David Bruckner’s Vision Was to Make an 80’s Coming-of-Age Monster Movie!
After the success of V/H/S, David Bruckner went on to develop a new Friday the 13th for both Paramount Pictures and Platinum Dunes.
Originally set to be a found-footage remake of the 1980 classic, a second attack at the script was to take a more traditional approach.
Unfortunately, back in December a new writer was brought on to take yet another crack at Jason Voorhees, which ousted Bruckner from the project.
While in development, Bruckner filmed a segment in our upcoming Southbound, in theaters February 5th and VOD February 9th, and is doing a press tour.
One of his first stops was with Fangoria, who got some inside info on both Friday the 13ths that could have been.
“When I came on board that project,” he tells the site, “Paramount was exploring whether or not they could do a found-footage FRIDAY, and they brought me in to crack it. I had some very specific ideas; if we were going to do that, I felt it needed to be single-camera. I didn’t think you could bring a whole bunch of media into the room, and that we had to do a kind of classic found-footage movie.
“So writers Richard Naing and Ian Goldberg and I set out in earnest to see if there was a movie there,” Bruckner continues. “There are certain restrictions to found-footage; just the fact that you’re locked into a single perspective almost makes the slasher formula impossible, because characters tend to wander off on their own all the time and get knocked off. Also, part of what defines some of the greatest slashers is the additional perspective. That was a really fun obstacle to tackle, and we ended up structuring it a little bit more like a monster movie. All the mythos surrounding Jason Voorhees opened up a lot of possibilities, and for a moment in time, we had a story that took place in the ’80s, which worked with the found-footage conceit. It was a return to form in a lot of ways, and we really focused on the characters.”
Things changed when “Hannibal’s” Nick Antosca was brought in as scripter and took a more traditional approach.
“We were set free from that mandate,” Bruckner recalls, “and did a draft that was not found-footage. We were allowed to truly explore what the film could be as a proper ’80s reboot—what that would look like. My take on it was that I wanted to do DAZED AND CONFUSED meets Jason Voorhees [laughs], a genuine last-day-of-school coming-of-age story. Nick wrote a great draft, and we really wanted to see that movie come to life. It was a very exciting process for me.”
Aaron Guzikowski is currently penning Friday the 13th. He is the writer behind Prisoners, which was one of the hottest screenplays in Hollywood. He is also writing the remake of Universal’s The Wolf Man.
Paramount recently shifted the release date to January 13, 2017 in order to allow more time for development, being that they’re starting from scratch.
What do you think about the direction Bruckner was taking the franchise? Would you have wanted to see a found-footage version of Friday? Or how about a coming-of-age 80’s movie with Jason Voorhees?
Before updating the video nasty Faces of Death, director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei explored the dangers of online life in tech-thriller Cam, their feature debut that was acquired by Netflix in 2018 after making waves on the festival circuit.
At the end of last year, the Netflix exclusive quietly departed from the streaming platform, left without another streaming home.
It’s not an isolated story; Mike Flanagan’s Hush also left streaming entirely for a period until it was finally picked up on both physical media and other streaming services.
While the tech-thriller currently isn’t available to watch on Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, or any other platforms, that’s not a problem for Cam thanks to a very cool move by Goldhaber: the director has made his breakout film accessible to watch online for free via his website.
As his site notes: “CAM is unfortunately not currently available to view on any platforms, so you can watch it here if you like :).“
No subscriptions or fees necessary, just hit play.
Cam follows Alice (Madeline Brewer), who works as an online cam girl obsessed with her ranking on the cam site. The higher her ranking goes, the more it draws unwanted attention, and Alice soon finds herself replaced on her own show with a doppelganger.
Written by Mazzei, a former camgirl, it uses the horror thriller premise to examine the life of a sex worker; Alice’s career ambition is directly at odds with the shame it brings to her family, and how she tries to spare them from it by keeping them in the dark. It only compounds her danger when the doppelganger enters the equation in Goldhaber’s engaging thriller.
For a deep dive into the treacherous world of Cam, listen to Horror Queers’ episode on it now.
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