CON: Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th

This year at the 2008 San Diego Comic Con, interviews were aplenty for JoBlo.com. So the Boss Man threw my sorry ass into the interviewing ring to help out the queen of JoBlo.com interviews, the lovely Jenny Karakaya. That is if you don’t count JimmyO, natch! But on Sunday, the last day of the Con, I was able to chillax and catch a couple of panels, which I was pretty happy about.

Initially, I wasn’t too happy about a remake for Friday the 13th. In general, the idea of remakes of films that are perfectly fine to begin with doesn’t thrill me. Yeah, it’s dated but how about something original instead? But Platinum Dunes has said from the start that they will be remaking classic horror films if the properties are available, and I respect that kind of honesty and vision to keep moving forward.

Producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller started out by saying that they’ve always wanted to bring a movie to Comic Con and were genuinely excited to do so. They then revealed the first teaser poster: black background with the lone, beat up hockey mask that we’ve all come to adore.

They casually ask if anyone wants to see the trailer to which everyone starts cheering. The lights go down and on the two big screens we open up on a lake, and then pan over to a wooden sign: “Camp Crystal Lake”. A girl and guy are checking out an old, abandoned cabin. A flashlight passes over a crib that reads “Jason”. They find this big hole in a wall and the guy notices something. It has hair, he thinks it’s a dog. He reaches in and pulls out a rotting skull. Then chaos. We hear the classic breathing as a machete goes through the guy’s foot, then hand, then he’s pulled down through a huge hole in the floor as the girl tries to help him. No dice, he’s gone. Then a montage of various scenes of people getting a nice “comeuppance” that ends with Jason running quickly toward a victim .

Video footage removed at request of Warner Bros.

When it’s over, people are losing their shit with excitement. At that point, they bring out Jared Padalecki, Amanda Righetti, and Derek Mears, the man who’s now playing that hockey mask wearing bad ass. After a brief introduction to the panelees, a line of curiosity seekers mosey on up to the mic to lob some questions to the panel. Here’s some information that came out of it.

• To the question of why if this is a remake, Pamela Vorhees is not the killer, the producers respond that Jason was always scarier than Pamela, so they went with Jason. Expect a possible appearance or mention of Pamela in the film.
• In the trailer, there’s a shot of someone picking up a hockey mask, which the producers confirm that yes, we will get to see how Jason gets his mask.
• They’re going to keep the supernatural element out of the movie and keep Jason rooted in reality. So, he’s not going to have this superhuman power.
• There are no plans on making it a series and the producers feel that the film stands on its own. Though they are not completely against the idea of a sequel.
• Platinum Dunes is looking to remake The Birds. They also really want to remake A Nightmare on Elm Street and would love to collaborate with Wes Craven on a Freddy vs. Jason movie.
• Though Jason’s origin is explored, this is NOT an origin movie.
• Derek Mears says that because Jason’s physical strength is rooted in reality, he’s not going to be mindlessly running after people. He will actually be setting people up to die in horrific ways.

After the questions, they ask if we want to see the teaser again. Everyone goes nuts. On the second go around, I’m able to really get a feel for the movie. Visually, it reminds me of the other Platinum Dune flicks. But as far as tone goes, it looks violent as hell without all the cartoony shit from those “other” Jason flicks. I am stoked to see this.