Taking impressive box office receipts ($91 million worldwide take on a $19 mil. budget) over the scathing reviews, Paramount has given the screenwriting team of the 2009 “Friday The 13th” reboot, Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, development deals for an as-yet-untitled horror project at their studio.
The duo, also known for writing “Freddy vs. Jason,” are keeping details of their pitch heavily under wraps, with THR reporting the only known detail of the project being its high school setting. However, unless the two define the horror genre as peculiarly as when “Synecdoche, New York” ended up being Charlie Kaufman's long-rumored fright flick entry, you should have a pretty good idea of what to expect. Mary Parent of Disruption Entertainment will produce, luckily having no affiliation with Platinum Dunes, that wellspring of nihilistic, brown- and red-filtered slasher reboots like “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”
Given their history, one should still applaud the move to create original horror content on the success of their cash grab reboots, so as details emerge on their project, which Shannon and Swift are set to direct as well, grant them the chance to justify their J.J. Abrams level of secrecy.