Yesterday brought us the exciting news that our favorite hockey mask-clad madman Jason Voorhees would be slashing his way to the small screen in a new hourlong television series based upon the characters and settings of FRIDAY THE 13th with the original film's director Sean S. Cunningham executive producing along with Randall Emmett & George Furla, Mark Canton of Atmosphere Entertainment MM, Steve B. Harris of Diversion3 Entertainment, and Ted Fox of Fox Entertainment. There wasn't much in terms of what the show would revolve around other than Deadline's report that the series “re-imagines Jason in multiple time periods” and that…
The series is contemporary, focusing on the eclectic characters of Crystal Lake who are forced to confront the return of the killer, as new secrets about his wacky family are revealed.
The question of what was meant by the series re-imagining 'Jason in multiple time periods' had many scratching their heads, but before you start picturing a time-traveling Jason though, it sounds like the show will follow Jason Voorhees as a kid when he was at Camp Crystal Lake and then the citizens of the town when he returns years later.
The folks over at Fridaythe13thFranchise reached out to show co-creator Dan Farrands who was quick to dismiss any talk of a time-traveling Jason, sharing…
"We will be exploring the origins of the Voorhees family, namely Pamela and Jason Voorhees, but doing so in flashbacks to past events that will be running concurrently with present day storylines. There is absolutely no time traveling of any kind".
Focusing on the community that has to deal with the aftermath of Jason's killing spree while flashing back to past events in his life and exploring the Voorhees family origin could actually be a pretty promising format. Now the question is what will the writers cook up for the long-form storytelling approach to the series?
Before anyone thinks that there isn't enough mythology behind Jason and Pamela Voorhees to mine from, we need to remember that people early on were quick to dismiss two of the best shows on television right now: A&E's "Bates Motel" (focusing on the early years of PSYCHO's Norman Bates) and NBC's "Hannibal" (focusing on the relationship between FBI profiler Will Graham and Dr. Hannibal Lecter). I think a FRIDAY THE 13th series could be a lot of fun.
More on this new series as we hear it!