The pic directed by Marcus Nispel is the retelling of the original Friday the 13th about teenaged summer camp counselors that are systematically slaughtered by a mysterious killer. Jason Voorhees will wear the mask and kill, keeping the famous setting of Crystal Lake.
BD: You guys have been on set for how long?
Mark Swift: It’s been about a week total.
BD: Is this something that you could be here for the entire shoot?
MS: Honestly, in many ways, yeah. They can’t really pay you to be here the whole time, you’ve got other obligations… We have a project with Sony that we have to get going. Being here is not only fun but you can also contribute a lot so yeah, I wish we were here prolly the whole time.
Damian Shannon: I wish I was at him in bed. No..This has been an amazing, great time and to actually see your words come to life by someone like Marcus Nispel, who is a visual wizard, it’s pretty exciting. So I would like to be here the whole time even if I wasn’t involved.
BD: Fans were pretty excited when you guys came onto this project because you have people that are known fans of horror films and the franchises as opposed to some Joe Schmo who was hired because he writes well. How was this being a fan of horror and being a fan of the franchise to have this opportunity? You already did FREDDY VS. JASON, how was it writing the ‘re-boot’ of FRIDAY THE 13TH?
DS: That’s a great question and for us, first of all, we had to think about it because we’ve already worked with this character. What was exciting about it was changing that character from FREDDY VS. JASON. We knew that Marcus Nispel would be involved and we knew that Michael Bay was a HUGE producer. That kind of quality of producer/director has never been involved with the FRIDAY THE 13th series. So we knew that was going to be something special.
MS: As for the character, we were excited to do something they didn’t do in FREDDY VS. JASON. For example, we want to see him by himself, back in the woods and being human again. Nothing supernatural.
DS: The thing is that in FREDDY VS. JASON, the movie itself is kind of fantastical, it was a kind of comic book movie, but we knew this could be something gritty, this could be something lean and mean. Just make Jason down and dirty.
MS: We used to tell people when we first started out that this movie is probably going to have more in common with FIRST BLOOD than it does FREDDY VS. JASON in a lot of ways.
BD: With the first franchise, the original films are very flawed, tons of plot holes, did that make it easier to restart or was it kind of difficult to try and keep all those things that horror fans love, intact? While keeping it believable…
DS: Right. That’s a great question.
MS: We never wanted to any tarnish of the original mythology. We never wanted to reinvent Jason’s back story. We don’t want to change anything about his mother, we love all that stuff and we want to make sure that that stays intact. But in terms of every storyline, it is not possible to keep track of every character and I don’t think that would necessarily be the right thing to do.
DS: It was a matter for us, starting fresh by cherry picking the things we love and then altering slight things that we thought were mistakes in the latter half of the franchise.
MS: Or things that you didn’t get to see. There are scenes in this that I’ve always wondered about being a fan that we never got to see before that you get to see in this movie and that excites me. There’s stuff that I always wondered about and always wanted to see it on film. We have a couple things like that in here that I’m really excited about.
BD: A lot of people were disappointed with the second CHAINSAW MASSACRE because they didn’t feel like the way that Leatherface got his chainsaw wasn’t defining enough. It was kind of like, he just saw a chainsaw and he picked it up. Do you feel that you really captured it, when he gets that mask, are people going to be like…
MS: (jokes) How did you find out that he doesn’t wear the mask in the beginning of the movie! How did you find that out?!
BD: (laughs)
DS: That’s a great question, we knew it was kind of incidental how he gets the mask in the original PART III. We knew we wanted to build a moment out of it. I think, for us, it is a great way to get the mask. But it is more up to the fans and what they think. But for us, we like it.
MS: Yeah. Definitely. I don’t mean to get boring, but originally there were a lot of legal issues with this movie. We weren’t even sure if he was going to be able to discover the mask because then does that make it the original and there are so many rights holders involved. Then, you got Paramount, you got New Line now to some extent, Warner Bros., there’s other right holders involved. So there was a lot of back and forth in the beginning with the lawyers about what we could show. Was it a true remake? There was a lot of stuff we had to juggle and whether or not the mask was going to be found. And whether or not that was the first mask, the replacement mask and all that stuff kind of had to be put in the air.
DS: At the end of the day, we think, when he gets the mask in this movie it will definitely be worthwhile moment.
MS: Definitely and as I’m sure you know, I’m f*cking excited to see him in the hood again. I love the hood.
DS: Oh and the hood in this movie, we just saw pictures of it, incredible! Incredible. It literally gave me chills, it looks phenomenal.
MS: Our first draft had him in the hood the vast majority of the movie, seriously. And Brad and Drew were like, hey listen, nobody loves the sack more than we do, but the f*cking hockey mask is the most iconic image in horror. So let’s move it f*cking earlier. But yeah, it should be fun.
DS: You just said f*cking, twice..
MS: There’s a lot of swearing in this movie.
BD: What other types of things, like swearing, are in this film for the fans?
DS: Besides being sort of true to the mythology, making Jason the greatest Jason that we possibly can. It’s all about sex, drugs, violence.
MS: We were just watching dailies and there’s going to be, seriously, more nudity than any other Jason film ever. It’s literally crazy, and actually makes me….well, I was going to say uncomfortable..but I’m not uncomfortable…(laughs)
DS: Well, you have kids, you have kids!(laughs)
BD: In a weird way, this is more of a fun, violent movie.
DS: Yes. Absolutely.
MS: I’m not a huge fan of like, ‘torture porn’ I know that term isn’t even in vogue anymore. But I miss horror movies from when I was a kid. I remember sneaking into Part II and it was a lot of fun, scary and fun.
DS: This is not the type of movie we’re you got a couple of kids acting like Scooby-Doo to figure out some kind of a mystery. This is kids partying and Jason, more bad ass than ever, comes out and f*cking does his thing. I think there still are a lot smart things we did underneath, but we tend to hide that. It just gotta flow and gotta happen fast.
BD: There’s sort of fine line that no one here can answer, and I figured if there’s anyone that can answer it, that would be you guys, since you wrote the screenplay. What is the lineage of this film? Does it take place in the same world as I and II and reference the other ones or is this really just a straight up remake?
MS: The question is almost unanswerable but I will tell you, in the first draft, it was a period piece. The movie took place in the 80s. That got changed so now it is modern day. We can’t stick to a particular timeline between two particular films, however, the spirit of this movie and the way I think that it is going to look and feel, feels like the first four films.
DS: I would agree. People say that if you could fit it in, it would be between either II or III, between III and IV somewhere around there.
MS: I think it was Brad or Drew were talking about how it’s the remake to the sequel that never happened.
DS: Exactly. From the day that we pitched Michael Bay’s company, for us, it’s what BATMAN BEGINS did. It was about starting it out fresh.
MS: It’s a revamp, a re-launch.
DS: Yes, exactly.
BD: I know that you guys realize that this is FRIDAY THE 13TH Part XII…
DS and MS: Yes. (laughing)
MS: I can’t wait for XIII.
BD: I was gonna say, if XIII happens and you are on board for it and they ask you to do it. Is this something you’re excited for, do you have ideas for.
MS: They are going to call it FRIDAY THE 13th squared….
DS: The only way we would do that is if I was directing and Mark was starring as Jason.
MS: Yeah, I have a lot of ideas for the character.
DS: That’s a tough question, we’ve lived with Jason for so long now…
MS: I definitely want more movies, as a fan.
BD: As a fan, for FRIDAY THE 13TH Part XIII, would you do a sequel to this one? Would you picture it as something different?
MS: It’s a real tough one, I haven’t thought about it. I hope there’s more.
BD: Could this one lead to a sequel?
DS: Yes. Most definitely.
BD: A big shock…?
DS: I can’t say that… actually I don’t know.
MS: We’re still working on it but I do know that Jason will be back, that’s one truism of this world. He’ll never die.
DS: By the way, the guy that they cast as Jason, Derek Mears, he is incredible.
MS: I think he is the greatest Jason ever and I am just basing that on what I’ve seen so far. I completely believe that.
DS: First of all, he’s a great stunt man, he’s a great actor. …
MS: He cares about the character so much. You just have to talk to this guy he’s the world’s biggest fan.
DS: He’s a HUGE fan and he’s incredibly physical, he’s just very good with his body. Every pose, everything that he does, the way he runs, the way he throws the ax. Everything, all that stuff looks phenomenal. And his enthusiasm and excitement for the character is huge.
MS: He really seems to enjoy killing people. I guess.
BD: He told us that he sort of referenced the first one as well. He said that he sort of felt that Jason was like a hunter and grew up in the woods.
MS: Definitely.
DS: Well, it’s in the screenplay, this isn’t a guy shooting deer all day in the movie. This is realistic, he has to be out there, that is how he lives. He lives off of whatever he can hunt. There are elements of that in this movie and you will see, in fact, there is sort of a slight Rambo quality to this Jason. There would have to be since he lives in the woods.
BD: Jason’s always sort of been, the anti-hero? Where you’re rooting for him..
MS: No, to me he’s my hero, he’s not the anti-hero.
DS: He’s a victim.
MS: Jason, to some extent, has to have our sympathies. He’s by definition, a sympathetic character. In FREDDY VS. JASON, Freddy was the victimizer and Jason was the victim, that’s not to say he’s a pussy because he’s an unstoppable killing machine. I really feel for the guy, I understand him. He is the anti-hero..
DS: He is the anti-hero, but let’s face it, these movies have been around for so long and there is only one reason why people keep coming back to see it, it’s for Jason. So we better empathize, on some level with this guy.
BD: Which is pretty impressive considering he doesn’t even talk.
MS: If you can’t relate to him on some level, I don’t think you’re going to be engaged by him or maybe I’m just sick?
BD: How much mother stuff..obviously you can’t reveal too much..
MS: She’s in the movie..
DS: 23.8%
BD: She’s in a high percentage of it though?
DS: Yeah, she has a dramatic impact I will say that.
MS: Yeah, the thing is if we were doing a remake it would be a completely different movie. But it’s not a remake, this is Jason’s story, but his mother is a huge part of it. The way she’s involved, I think it’s cool. I’m interested to see what the fans think.
BD: How much fun was it coming up with creative kills? These aren’t just decapitations..
DS & MS: No.
DS: It’s always fun. I think we’ve come up with some really cool stuff and it’s not just us. Marcus and some others have been involved. Our ideas have changed slightly through their eyes, it’s going to be really exciting to see on film.
MS: Yeah. I’m excited, man. Coming up with the kills is the most fun part. And since you don’t want them unnecessarily to be totally unbelievable, but they have to still be fun and much bigger than anything you would see in a normal, serial killer type thing. I mean, they’ve got to be big but they also have to be, like they could possibly happen. There was always that fine line where we would come up with something insane but could that possibly happen? You know what I mean? You want to keep it believable but still spectacular.
BD: What are you’re earliest memories of either Jason or the franchise?
DS: I remember when I saw FRIDAY THE 13TH for the first time. I think I was 11 or 12 years old and I was at my friend Rob’s house and we were watching it on video. It terrified me, I had never seen a movie like that! I was actually too young to see that movie and should not have been watching the sex scenes, and the violence.
MS: Yes, you should have..
DS: But the biggest thing, like everybody that remembers this film, was that ending. Where he jumps out of the lake and pulls that girl down…
MS: It’s a great movie.
DS: I squirted in my pants.
BD: Do you find it tough to compete with that ending?
DS: Yes.
MS: Extremely. It’s an expectation. Sometimes you want to get out of the way of that, sometimes you want to embrace it. It’s tough to top but we are going to do our best to see if we come up with something great at the end.
BD: What’s your earliest memory..(to Mark)
MS: I remember, it’s similar to Damian, it’s passing it around and when everyone had that sort of bootleg tape when we were just children. And as you get older, you see the movies..and I don’t know, he was just always one of my favorites.
BD: Off topic, before I forget, FREDDY VS. JASON, there were talks of a sequel and you guys were possibly fleshing out ideas for it. There was a talk of Pinhead possibly being in one. Was there an ending for FREDDY VS. JASON that wasn’t used? There was rumors of one..
MS: Yeah. Pinhead was originally involved in one of the ending. There were a lot of different endings that we wrote for FREDDY VS. JASON but Pinhead was in one of them.
DS: Yeah, the Pinhead ending was where they both get pulled down to hell at the end and they are still trying to battle. Pinhead comes out and separates them with chains and it’s sort of a ‘gentlemen, what seems to be the problem’ moment.
BD: If you were to write that sequel in hell, FREDDY VS. JASON VS. PINHEAD, how do you do it? How do you write it?
DS: I have no idea…
MS: There was a time where they were really trying to kick around what you would do with a sequel, bring in somebody else? They took Ash pretty seriously.
BD: Ash was a FANTASTIC treatment.
MS: Yeah, they took that pretty seriously.
BD: I just don’t understand how you could do that.
MS: Yeah it would be hard. They’re all hard. FREDDY VS. JASON had some pretty campy moments but bringing in a third? It’s just unavoidable. It’s tough, it’s really tough.
DS: To make a movie based on that ending, where Freddy and Jason are in hell with Hellraiser? That is practically impossible. You can’t stay in hell, you need victims, somebody to relate to. It was be too fantastical, I think.
MS: I don’t want to speak for New Line, but my guess would be, you make FREDDY VS. JASON, you make FRIDAY THE 13TH, you make NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, maybe sequels to both. But ultimately you’ll see that FREDDY VS. JASON fits in after those individual movies.
DS: You hope so?
BD: YEAH! I’m like you guys, another FRIDAY THE 13TH movie is another Jason movie, who gives a sh*t.
MS: I don’t want them to end. If like Batman and James Bond can be reborn all the time why not our favorite horror characters? Why can’t Freddy and Jason and Leatherface live on forever?
BD: It’s really frustrating trying to explain that to fans. You just can’t win.
MS: Well, the original movies are sacred and I understand that. I just don’t want it to end.
BD: I agree. On a final note, what was harder for you guys: Writing a re-launch that you know you were going to get backlashes for or writing FREDDY VS. JASON which was ten years of anticipation?
MS: FREDDY VS. JASON was 100 times harder.
DS: So much harder, it was a matter of trying to blend both mythologies, which both of them went off onto different tangents. And didn’t really make sense how you blend those together in a movie and give them balance so that the Freddy fans are happy and the Jason fans are happy.
MS: Some characters feel like they are from NIGHTMARE and other characters feel like they are more…I don’t want to say stock, like FRIDAY THE 13TH you have fun with like, the dick or the stoner, that kind of stuff. And God knows we have enough weed in this movie.
DS: Not to mention the process of writing FREDDY VS JASON, the convincing people the sort of dragging it to the finish line was a tiresome marathon.
MS: We worked on FREDDY VS. JASON literally for years. We worked on literally this project, for months. This was a very, very fast process, it was a great process. We got the script done very quickly, it was green lit very quickly, no other writers were involved and we went straight to shooting it. And now we are on set, we are tweaking it and it’s really coming together. I hope that it’s a great movie.
DS: There was actually one writer that was involved before us, we never saw his draft.
MS: I just hasn’t taken that long and its been a great process. FREDDY VS. JASON very hard process.
BD: Jason’s father, what’s your interpretation of where Jason’s father is….
MS: You know we kicked that idea around, whether or not we should address that in this movie. I think that you don’t want to know all the answers, when it come to the fun of the franchise, at least I don’t. I think that the debate keeps this sort of stuff alive. I love the debate, I love when fans say there’s so many different questions about the mythology. I don’t want it all answered. I have my own opinions, I know other people have theirs, but we didn’t want to have a movie that just explained everything, cause then it’s over. That takes a lot of the fun out of it for me.
DS: Yeah, the mystery, leave something for the imagination.
MS: Did he drown? Did he…Well, I don’t know if I’d answer that, I don’t think I’d ever answer that! Maybe I do, maybe I don’t.
DS: Yeah, there are a lot of questions. You always have to leave that open and let people kind of fill in the gaps. That is much more interesting.
FRIDAY THE 13TH arrives in theaters Friday, February 13, 2009
FULL REPORT
Set Visit Part 1: THE LEGEND OF FRIDAY THE 13TH
Set Visit Part 2:TONIGHT'S SCENES
Set Visit Part 3: KEEPING THE MYTHOLOGY INTACTFULL INTERVIEWS
Writers
Damian Shannon and Mark Swift
Producer
Brad Fuller
Star
Derek Mears (Jason Voorhees)
Star
Jared Padalecki (Clay)
Star
Danielle Panabaker (Jenna)
Star
Travis Van Winkle (Trent)
Star
Julianna Guill (Bree)
