Last November, it was announced that Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller would be developing a Friday the 13th series called Crystal Lake for A24 and the Peacock streaming service. The lengthy writers strike slowed down the progress of the show – but now that the strike is over, Crystal Lake is probably getting back on track, and since Friday the 13th has come back around on the calendar, we thought this would be a good time for us to share Everything We Know About Crystal Lake!
RIGHTS SITUATION
While the Friday the 13th franchise has been at a standstill in recent years due to a copyright lawsuit between original Friday the 13th producer/director Sean S. Cunningham and screenwriter Victor Miller, that lawsuit has come to an end. Miller has been awarded the copyright to the 1980 classic within the United States (as well as non-exclusive foreign rights), and to get this TV show rolling he has teamed up with his lawyer Marc Toberoff and Rob Barsamian – an investor in the original Friday the 13th who has a stake in the rest of the franchise. Due to the involvement of both Miller and Barsamian, Fuller will be able to use anything he wants from the existing Friday the 13th franchise as he makes Crystal Lake. From Mrs. Voorhees to every variation of Jason Voorhees, it’s all fair game.
Fuller himself told Fangoria, “We can use everything. We can go to Hell, we can go to space. That’s not to say that we will do those things … although if we do go 10 seasons, I will be lobbying hard to go to space. (laughs) A24 and Marc Toberoff, have beautifully and excruciatingly assembled all of the Friday the 13th rights. As a streaming series, we have the rights to do everything underneath the Friday the 13th umbrella. The movie rights are a completely different thing. They are tied up at New Line and are super, super messy and probably won’t be untangled anytime soon, but as far as us chickens in the television industry, uh, roost, we have access to anything and everything that Friday the 13th has done up until this point.“
CAST
Only one cast member has been announced, but it’s a name Friday the 13th fans will be familiar with. Adrienne King, who played heroine Alice Hardy in the original film (and returned for the opening sequence of Friday the 13th Part 2, where she was killed off) will have a recurring role on Crystal Lake. It has not been revealed who King will be playing on the show, but she is the one who has said the show will be “coming 2024“.
Fridaythe13thFranchise has teased that there will be “big surprises coming for actors involved as well as who will be portraying certain characters“. We do know that Fuller has met up with Friday the 13th (1980) and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter FX artist Tom Savini, but we don’t know what was discussed during that meeting.
WRITERS
Obviously, Fuller is going to be writing episodes of the show. He has also revealed that Scream writer Kevin Williamson will be scripting an episode. Earlier this year, Fuller gathered a group of writers for what would usually be called a “writers room”, but for some reason it couldn’t legally be called that in this situation. Instead, it was called a “think tank” and these writers were brought together to brainstorm ideas for the show over the course of six weeks. In this think tank were Fuller’s “three lieutenants”, who have worked with him on previous shows like Hannibal, Pushing Daisies, and American Gods, as well as Tommy Pico, who is on the Reservation Dogs staff; Tananarive Due, who has written multiple novels over the last thirty years and executive produced Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror; and Steven Barnes, who is also an author and has also contributed scripts to shows like Stargate SG-1, The Outer Limits, and the ’80s version of The Twilight Zone. There were others in the think tank, but their names haven’t been revealed.
On Barnes and Due’s podcast Lifewriting: Write for Your Life!, Barnes said the work they did in the “think tank” was “The weaving together of a dozen different threads, the epitome of the plotter technique“… that being used to describe the approach of completely plotting out a story before writing it. “To write without any sense of an outline is diametrically opposed to what was happening in that room.” Every idea was broken down with meticulous detail.
Due was awed that “an entire room of very, very high level and smart storytellers can swim in the same direction and do so peacefully, and then if the showrunner says, ‘Eh, I don’t like that direction,’ then bam! They’re all swimming in another direction.” The goal in the room was to “integrate with the mastermind”, the mastermind being Fuller in this case. “You’re not in charge, it’s not your story, you are in service to the mastermind, in service to the showrunner.”
Barnes pointed out that the showrunner is then “in service to the money people who are actually paying for all of this, so he needs to able to communicate to the writers and keep a group of people on track, but also be able to understand how they would be able to produce this and comfort the money people that their money is being spent well.“
Apparently traditional writers rooms last for much longer, something like thirteen weeks. But Due and her collaborators were told “this room was moving very, very fast. That we broke the number of episodes we had in six weeks, whereas some rooms would have only broken one episode in six weeks.” They said they were able to work at that speed and figure out the episodes so quickly because of the “extraordinary leadership” of Fuller.
MUSIC
Harry Manfredini created the memorable scores for most of the Friday the 13th films – including the iconic “Ki ki ki ma ma ma” sound effect. Other composers took over for Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, Freddy vs. Jason, and the 2009 Friday the 13th. Fuller has said there will be two musical options to choose from when fans watch Crystal Lake on Peacock: a classic Harry Manfredini score and a modern score.
“PRE-REMAKE-UEL”
When Crystal Lake was first announced, it was described in news reports as a “prequel” to the films. That’s not a term Fuller would use, and when asked about it he said it’s a “pre-remake-uel”… whatever that may mean. During a later public appearance, he said, “We’re honestly going to be covering it all. The series is covering the life and times of these two characters” (presumably he’s referring to Pamela and Jason there!) The plan is that we will see “many familiar manifestations of Jason” throughout the series.
Fuller has also said the Crystal Lake series will be appropriately murderous, probably “dropping bodies every episode”. Much like Hannibal, the show will have a distinctive look – and they’ll also have roughly five times the per-episode budget Hannibal had.
MULTIPLE SEASONS
Peacock has given Crystal Lake a full-season commitment with a penalty if they don’t do a season 2, so it’s basically a two season commitment. Thinking ahead, Fuller has already mapped out four seasons of the show.
When the show was announced, Fuller provided the following statement: “I discovered Friday the 13th in the pages of Famous Monsters magazine when I was 10 years old and I have been thinking about this story ever since. When it comes to horror, A24 raises the bar and pushes the envelope and I’m thrilled to be exploring the camp grounds of Crystal Lake under their banner.“
That’s everything we know about Crystal Lake at this point – but as more details are revealed, we’ll be sharing the news with you here on JoBlo and Arrow in the Head!
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