If you have a lot of free time (and perhaps a degree in copyright law), then you should really try to unravel the mess that is the “Friday the 13th” rights. Without getting stuck in the weeds, it appears various people own various parts of the franchise. But one thing is for sure — Peacock (aka NBCUniversal) and A24 are currently working on bringing a series to screen called “Crystal Lake,” which would be a new telling of the Jason Voorhees franchise. Unfortunately, the years of work leading up to it is likely being thrown away.
Let’s break it down a bit more, shall we?
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According to a very detailed piece on The Wrap, the version of “Crystal Lake” which was set to be showrun by Bryan Fuller and Jim Danger Gray is now dead, with both showrunners fired from the project. That means the series is now back at square one. But the report does drop one big, juicy tidbit—Charlize Theron was being eyed to play Pam Voorhees, the mother of Jason and the killer in the original “Friday the 13th.” Yes, that Charlize Theron.
The rest of the report goes into detail about who was at fault for the project falling apart before. Was it A24 and the studio’s lack of experience? Was it Peacock, who might have asked A24 to fire the showrunners? Or maybe it was the showrunners not paying enough attention to budgets and whatnot? The report paints an opaque picture about who is actually at fault. All we know is the version of the show that could have starred Theron is no longer being worked on. Though, it’s unclear if Theron will be approached about it in the future, when a new regime takes over.
So, what would “Crystal Lake” have been like? According to the report, the series would take place immediately after the drowning of Jason Voorhees and would have starred Theron as his mom. If the show would have followed the story of the first film, it would have found Pam Voorhees putting on a mask to chop up the camp counselors who were negligent when her son drowned. The report claims it’s similar to how Fuller turned the “Silence of the Lambs” franchise into “Hannibal.” The same stories but with some fairly major differences.
While it would appear the series is going to have to experience a major overhaul before it can go into production, we don’t yet know what that means. The report claims that “Hannibal” writer Nick Antosca is a potential showrunner replacement. But if he’s hired, it would likely mean that all the written scripts are thrown away.
All this to say—the “Crystal Lake” TV series is in trouble, but still might get made. We’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, we can all imagine what it would have been like for Charlize Theron to lead the cast.