"Jason, move a little faster!" Director Marcus Nispel yells to a rooftop where Derek Mears – the new Jason Voorhees - crouches down preparing to pounce on an unsuspecting victim. It's 6 in the morning on May 9 and the sun is on the rise after a nearly twelve-hour shoot on the set of Platinum Dunes' FRIDAY THE 13TH, which is currently lensing in Austin, Texas.

The cast and crew have flipped their lives around by working at night, and sleeping during the day. Tomorrow will wrap two weeks of night shoots, where filming begins around 8 PM and continues until sunrise. It's grueling work, but at least nobody has to work in the beams of the hot Texas sun. Over the past few nights, producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form have set up camp (no pun intended) at a cabin-house in the middle of the woods. The owner of the house had built his own lake in the backyard, which will become one of the various locations of the infamous Crystal Lake. The hills behind the lake are draped with trees and run all the way to the edge of the lake that, with Nispel's steady eye, will look infinitely long. To the right of the house is a path that runs down to a little shed carrying all sorts of supplies, some of which may come of use to either the teens - or the menacing stalker we all know as Jason.

FRIDAY THE 13TH follows the story of Jason Voorhees, a killer who lives in the woods after nearly drowning and watching his mother die at the hands of camp counselors at Camp Crystal Lake back in the '80s. When disturbed, this deformed madman (rocking a bag on his head and eventually a creepy hockey mask) takes out anyone in his path with his patent machete.

The franchise was born back in the early '80s when Sean Cunningham directed the independent film of the same name. As most horror fans know, the first film in the series featured Pamela Voorhees, as the killer, seeking revenge for the negligence of the camp counselors that lead to the drowning of her son, Jason. The sequel found Jason Voorhees wearing a bag on his head and continuing the mayhem his mother began. Eventually when FRIDAY THE 13th Part 3-D hit theaters, Jason became the hockey masked legend that we all know and love, today.

This 2009 film marks the twelfth entry in the franchise, and contains a scene where a group of teens tell creepy campfire stories – one of which is about the masked killer. What "universe" does this modern "retelling" take place in?

"The question is almost unanswerable," co-writer Mark Swift explains to Bloody-Disgusting, "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 [FRIDAY] films."

"I would agree," His partner in crime Damien Shannon adds, "People say that if you could fit it in, it would be between either [FRIDAY THE 13TH] II or III - between III and IV somewhere around there." The duo joked a bit about how it was actually more of a remake of the sequel than the original. "I think it was Brad or Drew that were talking about how it's the remake to the sequel that never happened," Swift explains referring to another potential FRIDAY sequel that could have easily happened. "It's a revamp, a re-launch. Swift seconds the thought, comparing it to another huge reboot. "Exactly. From the day that we pitched Michael Bay's company, for us, it is what BATMAN BEGINS did. It was about starting it out fresh."

Platinum Dunes producer Brad Fuller goes a little deeper in explaining what world the new film takes place in. "We have the same antagonist, Jason Voorhees. But as you well know, Jason didn't kill anyone in the first film. We didn't want to have a film where Jason's mother was doing all the killing. We altered the story to reflect something in the middle of what the first film originally did and what we are doing here. In looking at all the films, we felt that we loved the first four films and really used that as the basis to what we are doing now."

The story pays homage to the original films, but what about Mr. Voorhees? Swift and Shannon explain that they developed Jason by thinking of how he would be in the real world, dropping all of those fantastic elements. "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," Swift explains also adding that Jason might remind you of another '80s hero, Rambo! "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."

But is Jason Voorhees a villain or the anti-hero? He's more than that if you ask Swift. "No, to me he's my hero, he's not the anti-hero," he explains. "Jason, to some extent, has to have our sympathies. He's by definition, a sympathetic character. In FREDDY VS. JASON (also co-written by Swift and Shannon), Freddy [Krueger] 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…"

Shannon adds a bit on why it's so important to empathize with Jason. "He's a victim… [and] he's 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."

But what's Jason's take on his character? The new Jason Voorhees, Derek Mears, says the remake is pretty realistic. "It's pretty intense. I like it because we're getting back to basics, where it's realistic. I love the series and how would change, and towards the end, it gets really campy and it kind of makes fun of itself - with the 're-launch' it's not that way, it's dead serious. And I'm really diggin' it." Mears continues, "To me, it's the closest to [FRIDAY THE 13TH] Part II, where he's a normal guy, he's a big hurt kid. He's smart, which we haven't seen before even though he's wearing a mask, he has emotions behind that. My interpretation is a combination of Rambo, Tarzan, and Abominable Snowman from Looney Tunes, which is basically Lennie from MICE AND MEN. The Rambo [reference], what I'm thinking is that he's been pushed too far and wants to be left alone and he's been wronged by society. Now they are infringing on him and it's time for him to fight back. It's brutal and he has nowhere else to go and you're on his turf." We all know how animals act when they're defending their turf… watch out!