‘Friday the 13th’ Sequel Moving Forward

I can hear the production meeting from earlier this week as if I were a fly on the wall over at New Line/Platinum Dunes.

“We gotta get this thing moving. Â  The movie dropped 80%!”

By “this thing”, they were referring to the sequel to ‘Friday the 13th’. Â  By “The movie dropped 80%”, they were referring to ‘Friday the 13th’ being number 6 on the all-time biggest second weekend drops in history (it comes in just ahead of ‘Brothers Solomon’ and just behind ‘Return to the Blue Lagoon’).

The two companies are going forward with, presumably, ‘Friday the 13th Part 2’. Â  Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, who wrote the recently released reboot, will work on the script for the new picture. Â  However, they say the new film will not be so much a sequel as it will be a follow-up.

What?

They claim the new film will  use elements of the original franchise more as a jumping-off point than as a template.

I’m confused. Â  Not a “sequel” but a “follow-up”. Â  Not a “jumping-off point” but a “template”. Â  Someone over at Platinum Dunes needs a thesaurus.

For those keeping count, this will actually be the 13th film in the ‘Friday the 13th’ franchise if you count ‘Freddy Vs. Jason’, and I think you should.

Best-case scenario for New Line and Platinum Dunes is that ‘Friday the 13th Part 2’ will come out late 2010. Â  No, I’m sorry. Â  They say the film won’t “come out”, it’s being “released”. Â  And it will no longer be referred to as 2010. Â  It’s “The Year We Make Contact”.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter