Friday the 13th Reboot in Development from Original Director

A new Friday the 13th reboot film could be in the works from Sean S. Cunningham, according to a recent report from Bloody Disgusting.

The report notes that Cunningham — who co-created and directed the original Friday the 13th in 1980 — is working “to get his own Friday the 13th reboot off the ground.” Currently, it’s unknown exactly how that’s going with Cunningham, especially considering the legal grey area that exists around the franchise.

Speaking to Bloody Disgusting, writer and actor Jeff Locker spoke about working with Cunningham on a reboot of The Night Driver. In those discussions, Locker and director Jeremy Weiss pitched a reboot of Friday the 13th, and hope to further develop it with Cunningham.

“Sean hired me to do a rewrite on The Night Driver and after working closely with director Jeremy Weiss and him on that, we naturally got to talking about Friday the 13th and House,” said Locker. “Jeremy and I pitched our dream reboot of Friday the 13th – with Sean’s blessing to keep developing it with him. Obviously, the prequel TV series has reignited interest about a new film so we’re hoping the surrounding excitement will inspire both sides to come together and give us Jason on the big screen again for the first time in 14 years, but we also have a Plan B for a sequel to the original we think fans will absolutely love and should avoid any legal entanglements.”

For those unaware, writer Victor Miller won the rights to the first movie’s script and characters but not the title itself or the iconic look of the hockey mask-wearing slasher Jason Voorhees, as the hockey mask first appeared in the third film. Since then, he’s been developing a series based on the horror franchise called Crystal Lake, which will air on the streaming service Peacock.

According to Crystal Lake‘s showrunner Bryan Fuller on a recent episode of The Kingcast podcast, despite what fans may have initially thought, the team behind the upcoming prequel series can use whatever they want for the show.