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Sean Cunningham Keeping Hope Alive for “Friday the 13th” TV Series
Will we soon visit Crystal Lake on the small screen?
Remember when it was announced a few years back that a TV series set within the Friday the 13th universe was being developed? Like the planned reboot of the film franchise, the series never actually ended up getting off the ground (it was axed by The CW last year), but it seems that creator Sean Cunningham isn’t giving up hope just yet.
On the latest episode of the Shock Waves podcast, Cunningham provided an update on a potential “Friday the 13th” TV series, noting that it’s “still percolating.”
“The Friday the 13th series is still percolating and we’ve got a very good handle on how we want to do it,” said Cunningham. “You need really smart showrunners. I think the thing about Friday the 13th as a TV franchise… you have that problem – how the hell are you going to deal with Jason? Is he going to come out of the woods every week and smash another teenager against a tree and nobody is going to notice? Nobody knows who did it?”
He continued, “You have to service the fans. You can’t ignore them. Friday the 13th, at least in part, is going to be about Jason. So, how do you make sense of all of the contradictory stories that are out there, between Jason going to space, or versus Freddy, and all these other things? The assumption is this. Crystal Lake is a town that really exists, and a long time ago they had a series killer named Jason Voorhees, and then some Hollywood creep comes out and makes this exploitation horror movie called Friday the 13th. And then they make another one, and another one, and it just crushes the town. The town becomes the place that Jason built. And the stuff that happened, they know what really happened. The rest is Hollywood lore. There are people there that lived through it, and they’ll tell you what really happened. And so, what you can do is set up Crystal Lake as, more or less, like the town in JAWS – Amity Island. You have the town with all its prime movers in the town, but the town is located in an area that would allow Jason to exist in whatever form. But other things as well.”
“I would describe it as a place where if The X-Files’ Mulder and Scully wandered into this county, they never would have left! There’s so much weird shit going on! And then you have the family at the core of it. You’re not (always) following Jason around. It’s (also) the town and the town politics. It’s just such a rich pallet (of storytelling). And I’m really looking forward to it.”
For now, all things Friday the 13th are sadly lying dormant.
All of us here at Bloody Disgusting are deeply sad to learn that The Blob director Chuck Russell has passed away at 74 years old.
Russell’s career began with his directorial debut, 1987’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.
The multihyphenate film director, screenwriter, and producer is best known for helming 1994 comedy The Mask starring Jim Carrey, Arnold Schwarzenegger actioner Eraser, and adventure spinoff The Scorpion King. The latter served as the first leading role for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
The filmmaker left an indelible mark on horror with his ANOES sequel, 1988’s The Blob, and 2000’s Bless the Child.
Russell’s final film credit is 2024’s Witchboard remake starring Madison Iseman (I Know What You Did Last Summer), Aaron Dominguez (Only Murders in the Building), and Jamie Campbell Bower (“Stranger Things”).
It marked Russell’s return to horror after a lengthy hiatus, and he shared sequel hopes to Bloody Disgusting in an interview ahead of the remake’s release: “I got to design the board with real mystical symbols and things that I know represent good and evil, and where that board takes us if the audiences respond to the film, and I hope they will; I know it’s out there for you guys, but the sequel is a world we’ll get to go a little further. That’s sure the intention.”
He also recently expressed interest in returning to the franchise that began his career.
TMZ notes that Russell passed away at his San Diego-area home.
We send our deepest condolences to Chuck Russell’s family, friends, and fans.
Director, Co-Writer & Producer Chuck Russell behind the scenes of the horror film, WITCHBOARD. Photo courtesy of The Avenue and Atlas Distribution
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