A Friday The 13th prequel series titled Crystal Lake had been in development for some time for Peracock, but the project was apparently plagued with issues.
Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Dead Like Me, Star Trek: Discovery) was initially brought on board to develop the series and serve as showrunner, but last month we learned he was no longer involved. That was a big red flag that something was wrong.
The Wrap recently shared a report on the project after they spoke to more than a half-dozen insiders intimately involved in the planned $85 million Peacock series, and we learn why Fuller exited the project.
One of the big things we learned in the report was that Charlize Theron was seemingly on board to star as Jason Voorhees’s mother Pamala, which would have been pretty great casting!
It was explained that the series would have picked up after the drowning of a young Jason Voorhees, and it would be a ‘“deconstruction” of the first four Paramount movies.
The series would “incorporate lore from several sequels but remix that material in a way similar to Fuller’s Hannibal, which interpolated the Thomas Harris novels for three seasons.”
A source said: “We had the mask, we had the sequels, we could do whatever we wanted. He had a good path forward, which I did really like.”
Directors Vincenzo Natali and Kimberly Peirce were set to helm episodes. Kevin Williamson (Scream) was set to write what was “described as the show’s ‘Red Wedding’ – referring to the infamous Game of Thrones episode – set entirely on a frozen Crystal Lake, with the summer camp’s cabins trapped under snow drifts.”
Damn, I would have loved to see that! But, despite being three months from the start of production, The series “was plagued by inexperienced production executives making questionable decisions, problems with the show’s writing staff, and conflicts between showrunners and executives.”
It’s explained that the series was going over budget and that according to the report, “the show unraveled mostly because of Fuller and Gray.” An inside source said the studio “didn’t feel confident” and “had to pull the plug.”
However, another insider claimed: “It felt like everybody on the Bryan/Jim side were trying very hard to make the show. A24 felt like they were doing everything they could to not make the show.”
The writer’s strike also didn’t help the situation as significant progress on writing the series was put on hold for an extended length of time. The report points out a number of challenges when it came to completing the series’ scripts.
Regardless, Fuller ended up being let go and while A24 is said to still be committed to making the project, we have no idea if they will be able to make it work. It sounds like the whole behind-the-scenes aspect of the project is too much of a mess.
An inside source from A24 says: “We believe in the show. We’re going to make it.” If they do make hopefully, they continue in the direction that Fuller was developing. We’ll just have to wait and see.
