‘Friday the 13th’ Reboot Updates: Breck Eisner of ‘The Last Witch Hunter’ in Negotiations to Direct Paramount’s Long-Anticipated Retelling of Jason Voorhees’ Story

‘Friday the 13th’ is an upcoming reboot that may be directed by Breck Eisner of ‘The Last Witch Hunter’ fame. Eisner is reportedly in negotiations to helm Paramount’s long-anticipated retelling of Jason Voorhees’ story.

According to Deadline, Eisner is in talks to direct Paramount Pictures’ much-awaited reboot of the classic ‘Friday the 13th’ horror franchise. The 45-year old film and television director is best known for his work on the action-comedy and adventure film ‘Sahara’, the science-fiction and horror film ‘The Crazies’, and the dark fantasy action-thriller film ‘The Last Witch Hunter’.

Plans for the development of a reboot underwent several changes through the years. The studio originally scheduled the film’s release for 2015 until it was delayed for 2016. Now, ‘Friday the 13th’ is slated to premiere on January 13, 2017.

Writer-director David Bruckner of ‘Southbound’ was originally attached for the project but plans fell apart after Adam Goodman, former president of Paramount Pictures, departed his post. Nick Antosca of NBC’s ‘Hannibal’, Aaron Guzikowski of ‘Prisoners’, Richard Naing and Ian Goldberg also worked on the film’s script at various points.

According to MovieWeb, producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form confirmed during a previous interview that the reboot will be a kind of reunion for the Voorhees family. Fuller teased, "We're going to go back and we're going to meet that family. We're going to meet the family. You're gonna meet Pamela, Elias, and Jason. And you're gonna see how it all happened."

Fuller also said in a separate interview, "You kind of have to understand Jason Voorhees, so we go back and we kind of started over and work our way forward. But it's an origin that no one has seen before. Obviously Pamela's there, but it's a little bit different from what you've seen before."

Jason is the franchise’s main antagonist. He is as an undead psychopath who haunts Camp Crystal Lake and its surrounding area. The character was first introduced in the 1980 film ‘Friday the 13th’ directed by Sean S. Cunningham and was portrayed on the big screen by Ari Lehman.

‘Friday the 13th’ is a remake scheduled to be released in theaters on January 13, 2017. It is produced by Platinum Dunes’ Michael Bay, Brad Fuller, and Andrew Form. At present, the horror franchise consists of 12 slasher films, a television show, and other tie-in merchandise.