According to sources, it has been confirmed that Roy Lee’s Vertigo Entertainment and LeBron James’ SpringHill Entertainment are in talks to bring Friday the 13th back to the big screen. The news comes in the wake of Universal / Miramax / Blumhouse’s Halloween hitting an all-time opening record for its slasher franchise with $76.2 million which also doubled as the second best domestic debut ever in October.
We hear that meetings are out with directors and writers now. It’s still very early.
Friday the 13th screenwriter Victor Miller recently regained U.S. rights to the franchise under copyright reclamation laws, and took the project to Vertigo and SpringHill so they could move it through Warner Bros. Miller won U.S. rights after a legal battle with director Sean Cunningham and his Horror Inc. label; Cunningham produced the 1980 film. The Copyright Act gives authors a second chance and reclaiming their work after 35 years, after selling it for a low price. In the case of Miller, he reportedly sold Friday the 13th for less than $10,000 and wasn’t involved in future sequels.
There are many moving parts here. Warner Bros has some foreign on the franchise, having handled it via New Line previously.
Last year, in the wake of Rings failing, Paramount pulled the plug on a Platinum Dunes version of Friday the 13th after losing faith in horror reboots. That attitude is now changing in Hollywood with the recent success of Halloween.
James and SpringHill are repped by WME. Lee is repped by CAA and Stone, Genow. Bloody Disgusting first reported the news.
Source: Deadline
