The new Jason is….

I have a feeling I’ll have a lot of critical words for the Michael Bay produced remake of FRIDAY THE 13TH but at least they’ve gotten one thing right (and it’s a big thing). It seems they’ve found their Jason Voorhees and he’s the actor you see to your right, Derek Mears. He’s a stuntman/actor who’s been in THE HILLS HAVE EYES 2, MEN IN BLACK 2 and ZATHURA. Now a number of sites (I can’t keep track of who broke the news first but both Bloody-Disgusting and AICN are calling “exclusive”), are reporting that Mears will don a hockey mask for FRIDAY. I’m guessing at some point in the movie we’ll see under the mask but I don’t know that for a fact. Mears would join the already cast Jared Padalecki who will play an investigator checking out exactly what happened at Camp Crystal Lake when all those teenagers suffered from fatal machete wounds. Marcus Nispel (TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE remake) will direct the film for Bay and New Line. Filming is set to begin in late-April with a Valentine’s Day 2009 (??) release planned.