Movies
‘Friday the 13th’ Would Have Opened with 1980’s Paramount Logo
The next Friday the 13th is back at square one. But before Prisoners‘ Aaron Guzikowski was recently attached to do his own page one rewrite, “Hannibal’s” Nick Antosca took his own stab at the mythology of Jason Voorhees.
He speaks with Necronomicast about being hired by Paramount Pictures and Platinum Dunes to move away from found-footage, which was the original plan when Southbound‘s David Bruckner was attached to direct.
“[Paramount and Platinum Dunes] had a found-footage draft, and then I came in and did a page one rewrite [to] rethink, to some degree, making it not found-footage,” he explains as to what he was hired to do when Bruckner was already aboard as director. “I worked really closely with him. His idea from the first meeting was he wanted [Friday the 13th] to really have likable, real characters, and to be set in the 80’s.”
In a recent interview Bruckner stated that he a coming-of-age monster movie in the spirit of Dazed and Confused.
Antosca confirms this direction adding that “Jason shows up and shereds everybody.”
“And that’s what we did. That was the plan and we had a great time. [It was] an incredibly fun and rewarding creative experience,” he continued. “Awhile later I heard they decided not to do it in the 80’s. I’m bummed they didn’t do the draft [but] I’m more bummed that David is not on the project [anymore].”
This is where Antosca rips out my heart and cuts it up with a machete: “When I was working on Friday, I went back and watched the Paramount ones, multiple times, because that was the spirit we wanted – starting with the 80’s Paramount logo and all that.”
Say what?! Kill me now. It sounds as if they really had a fun and unique new direction to the franchise. Now, I’m worried we’re going to get yet another cookie-cutter interpretation of the original that’s more like a direct remake than something with a rejuvenated spirit.
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
Adam Simon (The Haunting in Connecticut, “Salem”) and Tim Metcalfe (The Haunting in Connecticut, Kalifornia) penned the script. The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallace.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
You must be logged in to post a comment.