When Freddy vs. Jason stormed theaters in 2003, it not only gave moviegoers the death match they’d been waiting what felt like an eternity to see, but it also marked the end of a decade-long journey of making the film a reality. Despite it being a reasonable box office success for New Line though, it was never granted a cinematic sequel (more on that later) as both individual franchises had become accustomed to.
Still, that doesn’t mean there weren’t plans to do such a thing. In fact, you’re probably well aware that studios love to up the ante in followups, and in this case, the intention was to go with what pro wrestling fans would know as a “triple threat match” in the form of Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash.
Now, here’s where it gets interesting. The folks over at Bloody Disgusting recently got their hands...
Still, that doesn’t mean there weren’t plans to do such a thing. In fact, you’re probably well aware that studios love to up the ante in followups, and in this case, the intention was to go with what pro wrestling fans would know as a “triple threat match” in the form of Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash.
Now, here’s where it gets interesting. The folks over at Bloody Disgusting recently got their hands...
- 8/8/2017
- by Eric Joseph
- We Got This Covered
Gurinder Chadha, director of last year's indie hit Bend It Like Beckham, is attached to helm Nine Wives, a romantic comedy at New Line Cinema that Neal Moritz is producing with Michael Pierce, Mark Williams and Tania Landau. Wives is about a commitment-phobic guy who breaks up with his longtime girlfriend and begins to wake up every morning with a different wife. It marks the third project the director has attached herself to since her indie soccer film hit the big time, scoring $32.5 million at the domestic boxoffice. She is developing I Dream of Jeannie at Columbia as well as Tucker Ames at Fox 2000. The original draft for Wives was written by Scott Fifer. The project is now out to writers for a rewrite, and Chadha will work with them to develop the project. Stokely Chaffin, George Waud and Jeff Katz are overseeing the project at the studio. The ICM-repped Chadha is completing Bride and Prejudice, a Bollywood musical version of Pride and Prejudice, for Pathe U.K. and Miramax Films.
- 3/16/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Coming off the studio's Blade: Trinity, Ryan Reynolds is in negotiations to reteam with New Line Cinema on the Team Todd production Sex Talk. The project centers on a sports reporter, to be played by Reynolds, who finds popularity by applying sports terminology and strategy to solve the problems people have with their sex lives. The project has had a string of attachments, including Ben Affleck followed by Seann William Scott and helmer Adam Shankman. Sources said the studio is known to be pleased with the actor's work in the David Goyer-directed Blade, which Reynolds recently finished, and are hoping to gear up the project for an early 2004 start. New Line and Team Todd are currently out to directors on the project. At the studio, the project is being overseen by Stokely Chaffin and Jeff Katz with Team Todd sisters Suzanne and Jennifer Todd handling producing chores. Tempest Farley and Analisa LaBianco wrote the screenplay. Reynolds is repped by UTA and Original Management. His other credits include The In-Laws, National Lampoon's Van Wilder and Finder's Fee.
- 12/12/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Fresh off the successful rollout of his sequel to Jeepers Creepers, Victor Salva has been tapped by New Line Cinema to write and direct the World War II thriller The Watch. Based on an original script by John Claflin and Daniel Zelman, The Watch revolves around a team of inexperienced soldiers who are sent to blow up a critical Nazi bridge only to discover that they are being hunted by Abaddon, a spirit of the devil. The Watch is being produced by Verna Harrah and John Goldstone, while New Line production execs Stokely Chaffin, Michele Weiss and Jeff Katz are overseeing for the studio. Salva is best known as the creative force behind the Jeepers Creepers series, both installments of which he wrote and directed. He also wrote and directed the 1995 Buena Vista drama Powder. Salva is repped by the Gersh Agency and attorney Matthew Saver.
- 9/19/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Opens
Friday, Aug. 15
Between them, "A Nightmare on Elm Street"'s Freddy Krueger and "Friday the 13th"'s Jason Voorhees have figured into something like 17 features and a couple of TV series, so you know anything promising a showdown between the two slasher movie icons couldn't stint on the body count.
But while there's no shortage of bloodletting in "Freddy vs. Jason", the scourge of Elm Street and the terror of Camp Crystal Lake don't end up scaring anyone. In truth, there's more genuine suspense and seat-shifting uneasiness in the average "WWE SmackDown!" than can be found in this witless, excessive and ultimately boring gore-a-thon.
While the producers were on the right track by bringing in talented Hong Kong filmmaker Ronny Yu (whose credits run the gamut from "The Bride With White Hair" to "Bride of Chucky"), even some interesting visuals can't distract from clunky scripting and the bigger problem that these are two rickety vehicles that have long ago run out of any creative steam.
Nostalgic young males looking for a hit of '80s pop culture should help scare up some decent opening-weekend numbers, but, with recent imports like "The Ring" and "The Eye" raising the fright-night bar, down the road it's more likely that the old-school "Freddy vs. Jason" will settle the score on DVD.
Of the two sturdy franchises, "A Nightmare on Elm Street", with its dream-residing bogeyman, had the more inventive hook, at least in the hands of original director Wes Craven.
He returned to the series with 1994's "Wes Craven's New Nightmare", a reconceptualization of sorts that was more ambitious than it was successful.
Meanwhile, the last time we saw Voorhees was in the more recent "Jason X", which had him wreaking havoc in outer space, having apparently run out of victims back on Earth.
For the filmed-in-Vancouver matchup, writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift start off with a promising premise that has the long-dormant Freddy Krueger (portrayed, as always, by Robert Englund) fading from memory.
Virtually all traces of his legacy have been systematically wiped out, while potential new victims are being drugged in order to prevent them from entering into a vulnerable dream state.
Determined to get back in the killing game, Freddy resurrects a waking-life surrogate in the form of Jason (played this time around by stuntman Ken Kirzinger), who has apparently come back from the future more or less intact and once again in possession of a nasty-looking machete.
At Freddy's behest, the teen bodies begin piling up anew, and Krueger regains his old strength.
But when wordless Jason refuses to step aside, the two face off in a protracted battle to the death, which can be tricky considering their previous mortality record.
By this point, pretty much all of the established "Nightmare" rules seem to have been trampled on during the big Jason-Freddy fracas, which, with all the CGI overload, is played more for grotesque laughs rather than earned shivers.
With the exception of Destiny's Child songstress Kelly Rowland making her feature acting debut as one of Freddy/Jason's potential victims, the other performances don't really register -- mainly because the writers didn't want to waste their time creating interesting characters that were going to get their heads lopped off pretty soon anyway.
As for the ultimate winner, while New Line's requests to keep that information under wraps will be honored, surely after more than 20 years of this stuff anyone who's expecting a decisive victory here ... must be dreaming.
Freddy vs. Jason
New Line Cinema
Credits: Director: Ronny Yu
Screenwriters: Damian Shannon, Mark Swift
Producer: Sean S. Cunningham
Executive producers: Douglas Curtis, Robert Shaye, Stokely Chaffin, Renee Witt
Director of photography: Fred Murphy
Production designer: John Willett
Editor: Mark Stevens
Costume designer: Gregory B. Mah
Visual effects supervisor: Ariel Velasco Shaw
Music: Graeme Revell
Cast: Freddy Krueger: Robert Englund
Jason Voorhees: Ken Kirzinger
Lori: Monica Keena
Will: Jason Ritter
Kia: Kelly Rowland
Gibb: Katharine Isabelle
Mark: Brendan Fletcher
Linderman: Christopher George Marquette
Deputy Stubbs: Lochlyn Munro
Running time -- 92 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Friday, Aug. 15
Between them, "A Nightmare on Elm Street"'s Freddy Krueger and "Friday the 13th"'s Jason Voorhees have figured into something like 17 features and a couple of TV series, so you know anything promising a showdown between the two slasher movie icons couldn't stint on the body count.
But while there's no shortage of bloodletting in "Freddy vs. Jason", the scourge of Elm Street and the terror of Camp Crystal Lake don't end up scaring anyone. In truth, there's more genuine suspense and seat-shifting uneasiness in the average "WWE SmackDown!" than can be found in this witless, excessive and ultimately boring gore-a-thon.
While the producers were on the right track by bringing in talented Hong Kong filmmaker Ronny Yu (whose credits run the gamut from "The Bride With White Hair" to "Bride of Chucky"), even some interesting visuals can't distract from clunky scripting and the bigger problem that these are two rickety vehicles that have long ago run out of any creative steam.
Nostalgic young males looking for a hit of '80s pop culture should help scare up some decent opening-weekend numbers, but, with recent imports like "The Ring" and "The Eye" raising the fright-night bar, down the road it's more likely that the old-school "Freddy vs. Jason" will settle the score on DVD.
Of the two sturdy franchises, "A Nightmare on Elm Street", with its dream-residing bogeyman, had the more inventive hook, at least in the hands of original director Wes Craven.
He returned to the series with 1994's "Wes Craven's New Nightmare", a reconceptualization of sorts that was more ambitious than it was successful.
Meanwhile, the last time we saw Voorhees was in the more recent "Jason X", which had him wreaking havoc in outer space, having apparently run out of victims back on Earth.
For the filmed-in-Vancouver matchup, writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift start off with a promising premise that has the long-dormant Freddy Krueger (portrayed, as always, by Robert Englund) fading from memory.
Virtually all traces of his legacy have been systematically wiped out, while potential new victims are being drugged in order to prevent them from entering into a vulnerable dream state.
Determined to get back in the killing game, Freddy resurrects a waking-life surrogate in the form of Jason (played this time around by stuntman Ken Kirzinger), who has apparently come back from the future more or less intact and once again in possession of a nasty-looking machete.
At Freddy's behest, the teen bodies begin piling up anew, and Krueger regains his old strength.
But when wordless Jason refuses to step aside, the two face off in a protracted battle to the death, which can be tricky considering their previous mortality record.
By this point, pretty much all of the established "Nightmare" rules seem to have been trampled on during the big Jason-Freddy fracas, which, with all the CGI overload, is played more for grotesque laughs rather than earned shivers.
With the exception of Destiny's Child songstress Kelly Rowland making her feature acting debut as one of Freddy/Jason's potential victims, the other performances don't really register -- mainly because the writers didn't want to waste their time creating interesting characters that were going to get their heads lopped off pretty soon anyway.
As for the ultimate winner, while New Line's requests to keep that information under wraps will be honored, surely after more than 20 years of this stuff anyone who's expecting a decisive victory here ... must be dreaming.
Freddy vs. Jason
New Line Cinema
Credits: Director: Ronny Yu
Screenwriters: Damian Shannon, Mark Swift
Producer: Sean S. Cunningham
Executive producers: Douglas Curtis, Robert Shaye, Stokely Chaffin, Renee Witt
Director of photography: Fred Murphy
Production designer: John Willett
Editor: Mark Stevens
Costume designer: Gregory B. Mah
Visual effects supervisor: Ariel Velasco Shaw
Music: Graeme Revell
Cast: Freddy Krueger: Robert Englund
Jason Voorhees: Ken Kirzinger
Lori: Monica Keena
Will: Jason Ritter
Kia: Kelly Rowland
Gibb: Katharine Isabelle
Mark: Brendan Fletcher
Linderman: Christopher George Marquette
Deputy Stubbs: Lochlyn Munro
Running time -- 92 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Julie James Jennifer Love Hewitt) is back. So is her seafaring boyfriend Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.), and, of course, the guy with the slicker and that nasty hook (Muse Watson).
But that's about the only resemblance between the ultralame "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" and the far superior 1997 original, which, minus the "Still" part, grossed more than $125 million in worldwide boxoffice.
But while the first installment benefited from the comparatively masterful talents of "Scream" scribe Kevin Williamson and Scottish director Jim Gillespie, the sequel's Trey Callaway (UPN's late "Mercy Point") and director Danny Cannon ("Judge Dredd") couldn't have less of a feel for the horror genre.
Their flimsy approximation is a listless, resoundingly hollow affair, completely devoid of anything resembling suspense or tension. Even the stubbornly unkillable Ben Willis traipses around looking about as menacing as the Gorton's fisherman.
Fans of the original may be hooked over the opening weekend, but poor word-of-mouth should send subsequent numbers dropping quicker than movie's doomed characters.
Heroine Julie James, who showed some feisty spirit the first time around, has apparently regressed into a mopey zombie since most of her friends were unceremoniously offed a year earlier.
Paranoid and hallucinatory, she has had little success leaving the messy past behind her by attending college in Boston. Enter spunky roommate Karla Wilson (Brandy), who has just won an all-expense-paid vacation for four in the Bahamas during the Fourth of July weekend (during one of the film's more contrived bits of business), which just happens to coincide with the anniversary of the big bloodbath.
Contending the vacation would be therapeutic, Karla talks her into joining her along with her boyfriend Tyrell (Mekhi Phifer) and platonic classmate Will Benson (Matthew Settle). Quicker than you can say, "How Julie Got Her Boogeyman Back," the tropical island paradise turns ugly as the evil fisherman once again rears his obscured head.
Packed with an embarrassment of illogical plot points even by conventional horror standards and static scene after static scene, "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" is as awkward and cumbersome as its marquee-crowding title. And when it finally gets around to the thriller stuff, Cannon's idea of shooting mayhem is to whip out the strobe lights while John Frizzell's score shamelessly cribs from everything from "Psycho" to "Friday the 13th".
Straitjacketed by the moribund plotting, Hewitt is confined to looking drugged while forced to utter such clunkers as "I'm not dying on this island. Do you hear me?" Even Brandy's perky presence does little to rev things up, again thanks to the script's bland characterizations.
The scariest thing about this purported horror flick is just how frighteningly it misses the mark.
I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
Columbia
Columbia Pictures presents
in association with Mandalay Entertainment
A Neal H. Moritz production
A film by Danny Cannon
Director: Danny Cannon
Screenwriter: Trey Callaway
Producers: Neal H. Moritz, Erik Feig, Stokely Chaffin, William S. Beasley Director of photography: Vernon Layton
Production designer: Doug Kraner
Editor: Peck Prior
Costume designer: Dan Lester
Music supervisors: Sharon Boyle and John Houlihan
Music: John Frizzell
Casting: Jackie Birch
Color/stereo
Cast:
Julie James: Jennifer Love Hewitt
Ray Bronson: Freddie Prinze Jr.
Karla Wilson: Brandy Tyrell
Martin: Mekhi Phifer
Ben Willis: Muse Watson
Will Benson: Matthew Settle
Nancy: Jennifer Esposito
Running time -- 96 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
But that's about the only resemblance between the ultralame "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" and the far superior 1997 original, which, minus the "Still" part, grossed more than $125 million in worldwide boxoffice.
But while the first installment benefited from the comparatively masterful talents of "Scream" scribe Kevin Williamson and Scottish director Jim Gillespie, the sequel's Trey Callaway (UPN's late "Mercy Point") and director Danny Cannon ("Judge Dredd") couldn't have less of a feel for the horror genre.
Their flimsy approximation is a listless, resoundingly hollow affair, completely devoid of anything resembling suspense or tension. Even the stubbornly unkillable Ben Willis traipses around looking about as menacing as the Gorton's fisherman.
Fans of the original may be hooked over the opening weekend, but poor word-of-mouth should send subsequent numbers dropping quicker than movie's doomed characters.
Heroine Julie James, who showed some feisty spirit the first time around, has apparently regressed into a mopey zombie since most of her friends were unceremoniously offed a year earlier.
Paranoid and hallucinatory, she has had little success leaving the messy past behind her by attending college in Boston. Enter spunky roommate Karla Wilson (Brandy), who has just won an all-expense-paid vacation for four in the Bahamas during the Fourth of July weekend (during one of the film's more contrived bits of business), which just happens to coincide with the anniversary of the big bloodbath.
Contending the vacation would be therapeutic, Karla talks her into joining her along with her boyfriend Tyrell (Mekhi Phifer) and platonic classmate Will Benson (Matthew Settle). Quicker than you can say, "How Julie Got Her Boogeyman Back," the tropical island paradise turns ugly as the evil fisherman once again rears his obscured head.
Packed with an embarrassment of illogical plot points even by conventional horror standards and static scene after static scene, "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" is as awkward and cumbersome as its marquee-crowding title. And when it finally gets around to the thriller stuff, Cannon's idea of shooting mayhem is to whip out the strobe lights while John Frizzell's score shamelessly cribs from everything from "Psycho" to "Friday the 13th".
Straitjacketed by the moribund plotting, Hewitt is confined to looking drugged while forced to utter such clunkers as "I'm not dying on this island. Do you hear me?" Even Brandy's perky presence does little to rev things up, again thanks to the script's bland characterizations.
The scariest thing about this purported horror flick is just how frighteningly it misses the mark.
I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
Columbia
Columbia Pictures presents
in association with Mandalay Entertainment
A Neal H. Moritz production
A film by Danny Cannon
Director: Danny Cannon
Screenwriter: Trey Callaway
Producers: Neal H. Moritz, Erik Feig, Stokely Chaffin, William S. Beasley Director of photography: Vernon Layton
Production designer: Doug Kraner
Editor: Peck Prior
Costume designer: Dan Lester
Music supervisors: Sharon Boyle and John Houlihan
Music: John Frizzell
Casting: Jackie Birch
Color/stereo
Cast:
Julie James: Jennifer Love Hewitt
Ray Bronson: Freddie Prinze Jr.
Karla Wilson: Brandy Tyrell
Martin: Mekhi Phifer
Ben Willis: Muse Watson
Will Benson: Matthew Settle
Nancy: Jennifer Esposito
Running time -- 96 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 11/6/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Having successfully persuaded horror audiences to "Scream" again, fright scribe Kevin Williamson follows up on that initial promise with "I Know What You Did Last Summer," a good old-fashioned scarefest that relies on smartly constructed suspense, not buckets of gore or CGI overload, to coax viewers to the edge of their seats.
Backed by sharp direction from Scottish filmmaker Jim Gillespie and solid performances by "Party of Five"'s Jennifer Love Hewitt and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"'s Sarah Michelle Gellar, the Columbia picture may be a mouthful for the marquee, but is certain to scare up potfuls of moolah when it opens the weekend after next.
There certainly isn't anything particularly groundbreaking going on -- horror aficionados will easily spot a little "Friday the 13th" here and a little "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" there, not to mention "Halloween" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" around the edges -- but Williamson and Gillespie know a thing or two about effective packaging.
Set against the mist-laden backdrop of a seaside South Carolina village, the action centers on four high school friends celebrating their final Fourth of July together before heading off in different directions.
There's aspiring actress Helen Shivers (Gellar), who has just been crowned the coveted Croaker Queen; her cocky, rich kid boyfriend Barry (Ryan Phillippe); her best friend Julie (Hewitt), who's off to Boston to pursue a career in law; and Julie's beau Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.), who dreams of escaping his working-class roots to become a successful writer.
But their big summer blowout hits a roadblock when Barry's new BMW runs head-on into a large, dark object in the middle of a remote stretch of highway. When their target turns out to be a human casualty, panic sets in, and realizing their blood-alcohol levels will no doubt result in a career-ending charge of vehicular manslaughter, they dump the body in the ocean.
Flash-forward one year later, when Julie receives an anonymous note bearing the words "I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER." Before you can say "slasher picture," she and her accomplices find themselves being pursued by a ghostly figure in a black slicker with a mean, "Candyman" right hook.
Gillespie and Williamson push all the requisite scare-tactic buttons, admirably forgoing the ever-popular latex and optical effects in favor of traditional lighting and camera angles.
The cast is definitely above-par for this course. Although Hewitt and Gellar are required to provide all the obligatory scantily clothed screaming, they're a lot more self-sufficient and take-control than their '80s counterparts. Philippe and Prinze are also fine in a limited capacity.
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
Sony Releasing
Columbia Pictures
Mandalay Entertainment presents
A Neal H. Moritz production
Director Jim Gillespie
Screenwriter Kevin Williamson
Producers Neal H. Moritz, Erik Feig,
Stokely Chaffin
Executive producer William S. Beasley
Director of photography Denis Crossan
Production designer Gary Wissner
Editor Steve Mirkovich
Music John Debney
Music supervisor Alex Steyermark
Costume designer Catherine Adair
Casting Mary Vernieu
Color/stereo
Cast:
Julie James Jennifer Love Hewitt
Helen Shivers Sarah Michelle Gellar
Ray Bronson Freddie Prinze Jr.
Benjamin Willis/fisherman Muse Watson
Elsa Shivers Bridgette Wilson
Max Johnny Galecki
Barry Ryan Phillippe
Running time -- 100 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Backed by sharp direction from Scottish filmmaker Jim Gillespie and solid performances by "Party of Five"'s Jennifer Love Hewitt and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"'s Sarah Michelle Gellar, the Columbia picture may be a mouthful for the marquee, but is certain to scare up potfuls of moolah when it opens the weekend after next.
There certainly isn't anything particularly groundbreaking going on -- horror aficionados will easily spot a little "Friday the 13th" here and a little "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" there, not to mention "Halloween" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" around the edges -- but Williamson and Gillespie know a thing or two about effective packaging.
Set against the mist-laden backdrop of a seaside South Carolina village, the action centers on four high school friends celebrating their final Fourth of July together before heading off in different directions.
There's aspiring actress Helen Shivers (Gellar), who has just been crowned the coveted Croaker Queen; her cocky, rich kid boyfriend Barry (Ryan Phillippe); her best friend Julie (Hewitt), who's off to Boston to pursue a career in law; and Julie's beau Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.), who dreams of escaping his working-class roots to become a successful writer.
But their big summer blowout hits a roadblock when Barry's new BMW runs head-on into a large, dark object in the middle of a remote stretch of highway. When their target turns out to be a human casualty, panic sets in, and realizing their blood-alcohol levels will no doubt result in a career-ending charge of vehicular manslaughter, they dump the body in the ocean.
Flash-forward one year later, when Julie receives an anonymous note bearing the words "I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER." Before you can say "slasher picture," she and her accomplices find themselves being pursued by a ghostly figure in a black slicker with a mean, "Candyman" right hook.
Gillespie and Williamson push all the requisite scare-tactic buttons, admirably forgoing the ever-popular latex and optical effects in favor of traditional lighting and camera angles.
The cast is definitely above-par for this course. Although Hewitt and Gellar are required to provide all the obligatory scantily clothed screaming, they're a lot more self-sufficient and take-control than their '80s counterparts. Philippe and Prinze are also fine in a limited capacity.
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
Sony Releasing
Columbia Pictures
Mandalay Entertainment presents
A Neal H. Moritz production
Director Jim Gillespie
Screenwriter Kevin Williamson
Producers Neal H. Moritz, Erik Feig,
Stokely Chaffin
Executive producer William S. Beasley
Director of photography Denis Crossan
Production designer Gary Wissner
Editor Steve Mirkovich
Music John Debney
Music supervisor Alex Steyermark
Costume designer Catherine Adair
Casting Mary Vernieu
Color/stereo
Cast:
Julie James Jennifer Love Hewitt
Helen Shivers Sarah Michelle Gellar
Ray Bronson Freddie Prinze Jr.
Benjamin Willis/fisherman Muse Watson
Elsa Shivers Bridgette Wilson
Max Johnny Galecki
Barry Ryan Phillippe
Running time -- 100 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 10/10/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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