Friday the 13th is one of those horror franchises that's just as unkillable as the murderous villain that made it famous. Since Sean S. Cunningham's original slasher was released in 1980 there have been ten sequels and a reboot, and now Michael Bay's production company, Platinum Dunes, is gearing up to deliver the thirteenth Friday the 13th movie in 2015.

Until recently the rights for Friday the 13th were tied up in multiple studios, but that changed last year when Warner Bros. handed over its stake in the property for a slice of Christopher Nolan's Interstellar pie. Friday the 13th still holds a considerable amount of potential for profits, especially since the last film in the franchise scored a respectable $91 million worldwide at the box office, and now the cash cow is ready for another milking. Jason Voorhees, on the other hand, might just be getting a vacation.

In an interview with Crave Online, producer Brad Fuller made it clear that very little has been officially decided for Platinum Dunes' next Friday the 13th film - not even the inclusion of Jason Voorhees. When asked if Derek Mears, who played Jason in the 2009 reboot of Friday the 13th, would be returning to the series, Fuller replied:

"I don’t know because I don’t know if we’re going to have Jason, I don’t know which Jason we’re going to have. I can tell you this: I love Derek Mears, I love working with him and he’s a dream so we’d be lucky to have him."

If the story that Platinum Dunes settles on is one that doesn't include Jason Voorhees, then this would be the first Friday the 13th film not to include him at all (he makes a brief appearance in the original film, despite not being the killer). Of course, there's still every possibility that Jason will return, but it's interesting that Fuller doesn't consider him to be a completely necessary component.

Jason Voorhees in 'Friday the 13th Part III'

Hopes for the next Friday the 13th movie don't seem to be too high at the moment. Over the past few years Platinum Dunes has churned out a number of pretty forgettable horror remakes - including A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Hitcher, and of course the Friday the 13th reboot - and the talk of making a found-footage Friday the 13th movie hasn't exactly been warming fans to the idea. According to Fuller, however, even the found footage format isn't a sure thing:

"[Found footage is] something that we’re looking at, yeah. I never know because it depends on the story and what the story is. It’s been reported, that’s something that we’re looking into but I can’t tell you definitively that that’s what the movie is. I'm well acquainted with some very loud members of the audience who hate found footage and I understand that."

Platinum Dunes had better start pinning the details down soon, as the release date for the next Friday the 13th film has already been set for early next spring. That means that ideally filming would need to begin by this summer, and currently there's no director attached or even a script. Fingers crossed for Freddy vs. Jason 2?

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The untitled Friday the 13th sequel will hit theaters on March 13, 2015.

Source: Crave Online