Friday the 13th (franchise)
Friday the 13th is an American horror franchise that comprises twelve slasher films, a television series, novels, comic books, video games, and tie‑in merchandise. The franchise mainly focuses on the fictional character Jason Voorhees, who drowned as a boy at Camp Crystal Lake due to the negligence of the camp staff. Decades later, the lake is rumored to be "cursed" and is the setting for a series of mass murders. Jason is featured in all of the films, as either the killer or the motivation for the killings. The original film, created to cash in on the success of Halloween (1978),[1] was written by Victor Miller and was produced and directed by Sean S. Cunningham. The films have grossed over $529 million at the box-office worldwide. It was the highest-grossing horror franchise in the world until the release of Halloween(2018), putting that franchise in the top spot.
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Frank Mancuso, Jr., a producer of the films, also developed the television show Friday the 13th: The Series after Paramount released Jason Lives. The television series was not connected to the franchise by any character or setting, but was created based on the idea of "bad luck and curses", which the film series symbolized.[2] While the franchise was owned by Paramount, four films were adapted into novels, with Friday the 13th Part III adapted by two separate authors. When the franchise was sold to New Line Cinema, Cunningham returned as a producer to oversee two additional films, in addition to a crossover film with character Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street film series. Under New Line Cinema, thirteen novellas and various comic book series featuring Jason were published.
Although the films were not popular with critics, Friday the 13th is considered one of the most successful media franchises in America—not only for the success of the films, but also because of the extensive merchandising and repeated references to the series in popular culture.[3] The franchise's popularity has generated a fanbase who have created their own Friday the 13th films, fashioned replica Jason Voorhees costumes, and tattooed their bodies with Friday the 13th artwork. Jason's hockey mask has become one of the most recognizable images in horror and popular culture.[4]
Films
- ^ The film was released in Spain in November 2001 for a single showing, but was not released widely until April 2002
Plot
In the original Friday the 13th (1980), Mrs. Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) stalks and murders the teenagers preparing Camp Crystal Lake for re‑opening. She is determined to ensure the camp does not reopen, after her son Jason (Ari Lehman) drowned in the lake, due to the negligence of two staff members. The last counselor, Alice Hardy(Adrienne King), fends off Mrs. Voorhees long enough to grab a machete and decapitate her.[5] In Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981), Jason (Steve Daskewisz/Warrington Gillette) is revealed to be alive and fully grown. After killing Alice Hardy, Jason returns to Crystal Lake to guard it from all intruders. Five years later, a group of teenagers arrive at Crystal Lake to set up a new camp, but Jason murders them. Ginny Field (Amy Steel), the last counselor Jason attempts to kill, finds a cabin in the woods with a shrine built around the severed head of Mrs. Voorhees. Ginny fights back and slams a machete through Jason's shoulder. Jason is left for dead as Ginny is taken away in an ambulance.[6] During the events of Friday the 13th Part III (1982), Jason (Richard Brooker) removes the machete from his shoulder and finds his way to Chris Higgins' (Dana Kimmell) local homestead. Chris returns to her property with some friends, and Jason kills anyone who wanders into the barn where he is hiding. Taking a hockey mask from a victim to hide his face, Jason leaves the barn to kill the rest of the group. Chris seemingly kills Jason with an axe to his head, but the night's events drive her into hysteria as the police take her away.[7]
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) continues where Part III leaves off, with Jason (Ted White) found by the police and taken to the local morgue after removing the axe. Upon arrival, Jason awakens to kill the coroner and a nurse before returning to Crystal Lake. A group of friends rent a house on Crystal Lake and fall victim to Jason's rampage. After killing the teens, Jason seeks out Trish (Kimberly Beck) and Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman), who live next door. While distracted by Trish, Jason is attacked and ultimately killed by Tommy.[8] Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) follows Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd), who was committed to a mental health institution after the events of The Final Chapterand grew up constantly afraid that Jason (Tom Morga) would return. Roy Burns (Dick Wieand) uses Jason's persona to become a copycat killer at the halfway home to which Tommy has moved. Tommy, supervisor Pam (Melanie Kinnaman), and a young boy named Reggie (Shavar Ross) manage to defeat Roy. They eventually learn that Roy had a son who was murdered by one of the patients at the institution, triggering Roy to take on Jason's likeness and kill everyone there.[9] Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) begins with Tommy (Thom Mathews) visiting Jason's grave after being released from another mental institution. Tommy inadvertently resurrects Jason (C. J. Graham) with a piece of the fence surrounding the cemetery acting as a lightning rod. Jason immediately heads back to Crystal Lake and kills the people working at the new summer camp. Tommy eventually chains Jason to a boulder that he tosses into the lake, where he leaves Jason to die.[10]
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988) begins an indeterminate length of time after Jason Lives. Jason (Kane Hodder) is resurrected again, this time by the telekinetic Tina Shepard (Lar Park Lincoln), who is trying to resurrect her father who drowned in the lake when Tina was a child. Jason once again kills those who occupy Crystal Lake and is returned to the bottom of the lake after a battle with Tina.[11]Jason is resurrected again in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) by an underwater electrical cable. He follows a group of students on their senior class cruise to Manhattan, where he kills the ship's crew and the majority of the students. Upon reaching Manhattan, Jason chases Rennie(Jensen Daggett) and Sean (Scott Reeves), the two remaining students, into the sewers. Jason eventually melts away because the sewer is flooded with toxic waste.[12] In Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday(1993), Jason, through an unexplained resurrection, is hunted by the FBI at Crystal Lake. The FBI sets up a sting that successfully kills Jason. Through possession, Jason manages to survive by passing his black heart from one being to the next. It is revealed that he has a sister and a niece, and that he needs them to get his body back. Jason resurrects himself, but his niece, Jessica Kimble (Kari Keegan), stabs him with a mystical dagger and he is dragged into Hell.[13]
Jason X (2001) takes place in the future, when Jason has again been inexplicably resurrected. A scientist, Rowan LaFontaine (Lexa Doig), decides that cryonic suspension is the only method of stopping him, but Jason breaks free and kills the army personnel guarding him before he can be again imprisoned. Rowan manages to lure Jason into the cryo‑chamber, but he ruptures the tank and freezes both himself and Rowan. Over 400 years later, a team of students studying Earth discover Jason's body and take it into space. Upon being thawed by the team, he proceeds to murder everyone aboard the spacecraft. He is seemingly killed, but is then resurrected via nanotechnology as a cyborg version of himself. Finally, he is ejected into space and incinerated by Earth Two's atmosphere, his mask falling to the bottom of a lake.[14] The next Friday the 13th film, Freddy vs. Jason (2003), was a crossover with A Nightmare on Elm Street. Set in the contemporary period, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) resurrects Jason (Ken Kirzinger) and sends him to Springwood hoping that he will create enough fear among the residents that Freddy will be strong enough to invade their dreams. Jason accomplishes this but refuses to stop killing. A battle ensues both in the dream-world and at Crystal Lake. The outcome is left ambiguous, as Jason surfaces from the lake holding Freddy's severed head, which winks and laughs.[15]
In 2009, a new Friday the 13th film which restarted the film series continuity was released. In this film, after witnessing his mother being beheaded at a young age, an adult Jason (Derek Mears) follows in her footsteps and kills anyone who comes to Crystal Lake. Jason subsequently kidnaps a young woman, Whitney Miller (Amanda Righetti), who resembles his mother at a young age. Six weeks after her disappearance, her brother, Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki), comes to look for her. The pair reunite and work together to seemingly kill Jason.[16]
Future
Shortly after the 2009 reboot's theatrical release, producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form expressed an interest in producing another Friday the 13th film, citing the enjoyment they had working on the reboot.[17] On October 1, 2009, Warner Bros. Picturesannounced that it planned to release the Friday the 13th sequel on August 13, 2010.[18] Subsequently, on December 10, 2009, Warner Bros. announced that it had pulled the sequel from the August 13, 2010 release slot and listed its release as "TBD" (to be determined). Warner Bros. also announced that Damian Shannon and Mark Swift were penning the sequel.[19] On April 21, 2010, Fuller announced on his Twitter page that a sequel to the 2009 remake was no longer in the works, declaring it, "dead — not happening".[20] In a later interview, Fuller explained that the 2009 reboot was the result of a joint effort between Paramount and New Line Cinema, as both owned portions of the Friday the 13th franchise. With a down economy, both studios were limiting the films they produced each year, opting to produce films carrying lower risks and higher rewards. Accordingly, the companies put Friday the 13th Part 2 on hold in hopes that they would move forward with this next installment when the economy bounced back. Form explained that neither studio would walk away from the sequel's production to allow the other to move forward as the primary producing house, each studio concerned that its players would look like "idiots" should the sequel perform well without its involvement. Form and Fuller also mentioned that the Friday the 13th sequel may be a 3‑D film, should it ever again be green-lit for production by the studios.[21]
On February 1, 2011, Fuller announced via Twitter that Shannon and Smith had completed writing a script for the sequel. Fuller reported that he was ready to begin production, but that New Line Cinema was not.[22] On June 5, 2013, The Hollywood Reporterreported that Warner Bros. had relinquished its film rights to the Friday the 13th series to Paramount as part of a deal that would allow Warner Bros. to co-produce Interstellar.[23] One week later, Derek Mearsrevealed that Paramount was working with Platinum Dunes to make a new installment "as fast as possible." [24] David Bruckner was set to direct the next installment of Friday the 13th.[25] After altering the release date numerous times, Paramount set the film for a Friday, May 13, 2016 release date.[26] In March 2015, it was announced that TV writer Nick Antosca would write the script.[27] On October 20, 2015, The Wrap reported that Paramount pushed back the film's release date to January 13, 2017.[28]On December 3, 2015, it was announced that Aaron Guzikowski was negotiating a deal to write a new script, but that Bruckner, who had purportedly left the project in 2015, would no longer be directing.[29] On May 31, 2016, Fuller revealed that the reboot would be an origin story for Jason, and his mother would be in the film.[30] On August 8, 2016, Variety reported that Breck Eisner was in talks to direct the reboot.[31] In September 2016, Paramount pushed back the reboot's release date from Friday, January 13, 2017 to Friday, October 13, 2017.[32]
On January 27, 2017, it was reported that the reboot's working title was Friday the 13th: Part 13, Platinum Dunes was looking for someone to play a young Jason Voorhees, and production would begin in March 2017, slated for a Friday, October 13, 2017 release date.[33][34][35] On February 6, 2017, it was announced that Paramount officially canceled the project, and Paramount assigned the October 13, 2017 release date to its upcoming film, Mother!.[36]On October 10, 2017, Shannon and Swift revealed the title of their proposed sequel, Friday the 13tdh: Camp Blood – The Death of Jason Voorhees.[37] The rights to the franchise are slated to revert to New Line/Warner Bros. in 2018.[38] However, Victor Miller, who wrote the original Friday the 13th screenplay, asserted that Horror Inc. derived its current copyright to the screenplay from Miller's transfer of copyright to Horror Inc.'s predecessor-in-interest, the Manny Company. Miller sent a Notice of Termination to Horror Inc. on January 26, 2016, purportedly reclaiming his rights to the screenplay and the content contained therein through termination of the transfer of rights he had formerly made to the Manny Company.[39]
Original film producer Sean S. Cunningham claims that Miller wrote the screenplay for Friday the 13th as a work-made-for-hire for the Manny Company.[40]Under copyright law, an employer is considered the statutory author and copyright holder if a work is made in the employee's scope of employment. If, as Cunningham contends, Miller wrote the screenplay as the Manny Company's employee, he never held a copyright to the screenplay to transfer or reclaim.[41]A lawsuit seeking the parties' declaration of rights was filed in a federal court in Connecticut.[42] On September 28, 2018, Miller won the rights against Cunningham.[43] Cunningham appealed, the appeal was withdrawn due to technical reasons, and then reinstated by the deadline of April 12, 2019.[44]
By October 2018, LeBron James, through his production company Springhill Entertainment alongside Vertigo Entertainment, is in talks to co-produce the next film.[45] In following month, screenwriter Clint Ford has written the prequel screenplay for the franchise titled Friday the 13th: The Beginning, as reported by Ain't It Cool News.[46][47] In July 2019, Tom McLoughlin, writer and director of Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, revealed that he authored a spec script for a sequel film titled Jason Never Dies.[48][49] McLoughlin confirmed the film would have served as a direct sequel to Jason Lives, ignoring the other films in the franchise.[50]
Television
Production
Reception
Music
Other media
References
External links
Fascinating.
ReplyDeleteDick wieand played roy burns in part 5 of friday the 13th!!!
Woe my.
But, interestingly, tom Morgan played roy during almost all his ponderously terrifying mask scenes!!
A double actor played a few scenes though.
John hock.
When tom Morgan was drinking.
Most notably the scene where roy burns falls to his death from the barn, at the end of the movie!!!