Happy Campers and Crystal Lake
Friday, the 13th Movie Trailer. Once the script was in place, the filmmakers focused on casting a young ensemble of actors to play the college kids who unwittingly enter into the realm of a murderer.
The first character the filmmakers had to cast was Clay Miller, the young man looking for his sister, who has gone missing after a weekend camping trip. Jared Padalecki, who currently stars on the television show “Supernatural,” was selected for the role.
“Clay’s sister left on bad terms and has been missing for over a month, and he just wants to find out for himself what happened,” explains Padalecki. “He knocks on the door of a lake house and he ends up getting entangled with a group of young kids who are there for the weekend.”
“Jared Padalecki was the first person cast in the film and it really set the tone,” says producer Brad Fuller.
“We were already fans of Jared’s from `Supernatural,’” notes Andrew Form. “He’s really talented and hardworking, plus he’s a big guy, so we knew we had someone who could probably give the villain a run for his money.”
“I was in middle school when I saw the original “Friday The 13th” and I remember it scaring the life out of me,” laughs Jared Padalecki. “When I found out they were remaking the movie, I was very excited about getting involved.”
While looking for clues to the whereabouts of his missing sister, Clay meets Jenna, who is on a weekend getaway with her friends. Played by Danielle Panabaker, “Jenna is ambiguously dating Trent, whose parents own a big cabin that she and several other friends go to for the weekend,” says the actress. “She and Trent have not hooked up and she’s not sure if it’s something she wants to pursue. She’s just there to have fun and hang out at a beautiful house by the lake.”
“The character of Jenna is a little bit complicated. We need the viewer to like her, even though she goes to the lake house with one guy and ditches him for a different guy,” explains Nispel.
The casting could have been tricky. “There’s an incredible innocence to Danielle,” says Form. “She’s not naïve; she just has a wide-eyed view of the world, which was needed for Jenna. The character had to be likeable so audiences understand why she makes the choice that she does and love her for doing it.”
Playing Jenna’s would-be suitor, Trent, is Travis Van Winkle, who first caught the attention of the producers in a small role in Michael Bay’s “Transformers.” “Travis had worked with Michael and was the first person that we thought of to play Trent,” reveals Form.
Fuller offers, “There are nuances to his performance that were not on the page, things that he did that really enhanced his character. Travis brought so much to it.”
“Trent is a jerk,” states director Nispel bluntly. “He is arrogant, but he has to be likeable at the same time, if such a thing exists.”
“Trent is really trying to score, so he figures if he brings a bunch of friends up to his parents’ lake house for a big blowout, he will be able to finally hook up with this particular girl,” explains Van Winkle. “Unfortunately things don’t quite work out the way he planned.”
For Van Winkle, the opportunity to be in the re-launch of “Friday The 13th” was one he couldn’t pass up. “Are you kidding me? I was all over it,” the actor enthuses. “It’s Jason! The hockey mask! All I wanted was to have an awesome death scene.”
While Jason terrorizes the woods around Crystal Lake, the characters of Lawrence and Chewie, played by Arlen Escarpeta and Aaron Yoo, bring some comic relief to the film as a pair of best friends who never miss an opportunity to keep the party going and the one-liners flowing.
“Chewie is the jester of the film,” laughs Aaron Yoo. “Someone told me back in the day that in a movie like this, there’s something necessary about watching a clown die. The first time Arlen and I met the producers they said, `You don’t really have to do anything scary in the movie, just be funny. If you’re not funny, we’ll throw you in a meat compactor and send you home.’” Yoo hoped they were kidding, but in a horror movie, he couldn’t be sure.
“Chewie and I are the new-age Wonder Twins and when we get together, it’s just total debauchery,” offers Escarpeta. “Lawrence and Chewie together is the ultimate combo-it’s like getting the burgers, the fries and all the calories that come with it. We taste great but we’re so bad for you,” grins the actor. “Anybody we can get our hands on in the movie, we’re either poking fun at them or making fun of someone else with them. We’re frat guys without being in a fraternity. We’re our own fraternity.”
Taking the role of Clay’s missing sister, Whitney, is Amanda Righetti from the hit TV show “The Mentalist.” “I was quite young when the first films came out, but I remember the character of Jason very well,” comments Righetti. “When I auditioned for the role, they didn’t let me read the script, so it really was a leap of faith. After I got the part and read it, I was really excited because I thought Whitney had an unusual character arc that I didn’t expect. The script was innovative and fresh and you don’t really know who is going to live and who is going to die, which will keep the audience guessing.”
“Amanda’s a tough girl and has the guts and the gumption to get up and go when the time comes,” admires Form. “She takes it very seriously and brings a level of commitment to the character that I love.”
While Nispel and the filmmakers were busy assembling the cast of characters who find themselves at the mercy of a psychotic killer, they also had to decide who would brandish the machete and slip on the iconic hockey mask, effectively becoming the new Jason Voorhees. During the almost 30-year history of the franchise, there have been several actors who have played the character. This time around, the filmmakers chose actor and stuntman Derek Mears to portray the genre’s instantly recognizable villain.
“When we talked about who would play Jason, we all agreed we wanted an imposing actor,” says director Nispel. “We had already hired Jared Padalecki, who is six-foot-four, so we knew we needed a very big actor as well as a stunt double to do the stunts for the actor playing Jason.”
“When Derek stood in the room and you could see exactly how he’s built and how he moves, we knew he was Jason,” remembers Form. “He had the exact build we were looking for and it was a blessing that he was also a stuntman. We were much more interested in his acting because it was really important for us that he was not mechanical in any way. We wanted a real actor behind the mask and Derek took that very seriously.”
“I grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons, collecting comic books, and I loved horror and sci-fi films,” says Derek Mears.“`Friday the 13th’ is one of my favorites. It’s such an honor to play Jason Voorhees, and I feel a tremendous responsibility to the fans.”
“Derek really transcended the character and put so much care and meticulous thought into his performance,” says director Marcus Nispel. “He brought an intensity and fluidity to the character that audiences have never seen before. I really hope that moviegoers have the vision to look behind the mask; he adds so much that comes through and it really elevates the film.”
“Casting our films is something that is very personal for me,” admits producer Brad Fuller. “Some of the actors in the film we had met before and were on a list of people we wanted to work with. Each one of the actors we have cast has a piece of themselves in the character that they’re playing.”
The Many Faces of Jason…
A big challenge for the filmmakers and the writing team in developing the film was deciding on what Jason would wear to cover his deformed face. In the long history of the franchise, Jason first appeared in the final frames of the original film, jolting audiences out of their seats with his shocking leap out of Crystal Lake. In the second film, fans turned out in droves to watch the popular villain don a burlap sack. It wasn’t until the third installment of the franchise that Jason put on the hockey mask that would propel him to a new level of pop culture status.
The filmmakers made the decision early in the scriptwriting process to have Jason begin the film wearing the burlap sack from “Friday the 13th Part 2,” giving fans a chance to see how he finds what has become the character’s calling card: the well-worn hockey mask.
“We decided early on that we didn’t want to turn it on its ear and create a mask that people were not used to,” notes Fuller. “And we wanted to add our own sack like the one Jason wore in the second film. It’s such a great visual.”
Fuller agrees. “We all felt that if you’re going to make this film, it must include that moment when he takes off the sack and puts on the hockey mask and becomes Jason.”
“Hopefully fans will dig it,” says Swift. “It’s really a scene that we wrote to be that `wow’ moment in the film.”
Creating the look of both the mask and the sack was entrusted to special effects makeup supervisor Scott Stoddard and his gifted team.
“Scott was the first person we hired on this film,” says Andrew Form. “He did amazing work for us before and is just an incredibly talented artist.”
“Scott created a new version of the sack that we all fell in love with the first time we saw it,” adds producer Fuller. “We knew the mask was the look everyone knows, but we thought it would be a perfect combination if he could wear both.”
Stoddard notes, “I’m a big fan of `The Elephant Man’ and Jason is actually kind of a tragic figure like John Merrick, so I asked Tim Jarvis to make a hole that Jason sees out of that is a little bit square, and crudely stitched together. Tim did an amazing job making it and I think fans will really like the look.”
For Stoddard and his team, coming up with Jason’s overall look was born out of respect. “We definitely wanted to keep him more human,” offers Scott, “because, within every serial killer, there’s a history to the sociopath they become, and Jason has a great history.”
For Derek Mears, seeing Stoddard’s handiwork for the first time was something the actor would not soon forget. “The first time I strapped on the mask in Scott’s make-up shop in Los Angeles, I got chills.” reveals Mears. “Everyone in the shop stopped what they were doing and looked over. I felt like I was lifting Excalibur, and all I could see were heads looking at each other and smiling from ear to ear. It was an amazing moment for me.”
Stoddard himself transported the hockey mask from Los Angeles to Austin for the film shoot. It was an adventure. “I hand-carried Jason’s hockey mask in a special silver case because I was too afraid to send it any other way,” explains Stoddard.“I was going through airport security when two guards came around and asked me to follow them. They took me to a special room and opened the case and said, `Is that the Jason mask? We’re really big fans-can you take it out and let us see it?’”
Another element that the filmmakers wanted to bring back was the carefree “sex, drugs and rock & roll” attitude that permeated the early films. “We really wanted to bring the fun back to the franchise,” says producer Form. “We wanted to have young college kids having a blast being kids. It’s a wonderfully vivacious group of kids who are a lot of fun to watch, even as they experience all these horrific scares.”
Crystal Lake…
The last piece of the pre-production puzzle was picking a location to shoot the film. In the original, the rural New Jersey cities of Blairstown and Hope were used for the town of Crystal Lake, with Camp NoBeBoSco in Hardwick Township, New Jersey substituting for the camp site. This time around, the filmmakers selected the city of Austin, Texas, and its small outlying communities as the production base and shooting locations for the film.
Fuller explains, “The fact is, the local crews in Austin are the best that we’ve worked with and this is the fourth film we have shot there. We’re very comfortable doing movies there.”
Still, the setting calls for lush woods and serene lakes. Fuller admits it was an effort to find appropriate locations. “The area didn’t lend itself to it and when you see Crystal Lake in the film, it’s really three or four different lakes-one had the right trees and another had the right water. We really struggled at times, but we had such an amazing production designer, Jeremy Conway, who was able to turn some average locations into really cool places.”
Of course, not everything was shot outdoors, as Form reveals. “One of the things we had talked about early on was whether or not Jason is supernatural or a real person. We decided we wanted him to be a real guy. And if he’s real, how is he living? Where has he been hiding for the last 20, 30 years or however long it’s been since his mother was killed? Marcus had this great idea that there was this old mine around Crystal Lake, deep in the woods, that’s been closed down. Jason has made that mine his home, living underground, off the radar, and then he comes out, he hunts, gets his food and goes back underground. No one would even know where he is. He doesn’t bother anybody, nobody bothers him. Of course what happens in our film is that this is the first group of people that actually bother him. They disturb him; they do something they shouldn’t do, which makes him do something he shouldn’t do. So it’s the rebirth of Jason.”
Form continues, “We talked to Jeremy and said, `Can you build us some tunnels? Can you make them big? We need them big, long-it needs to be a maze. We need a chamber of horrors.’ Then the sketches started flying in and then the models were put up in front of us. We looked at these 3D models and thought, that’s going to look good. Then we walked on stage and there were 150 feet of tunnels! And there’s dirt and it’s claustrophobic and it has a ceiling and it’s all covered up. You don’t even know where you are and you come through and you make a left and then suddenly you’re staring at the spot where Jason sharpens his machete…”
Finally, at a Boy Scout camp in Bastrop, Texas, as the late afternoon sun sank into the murky waters of Lake Bastrop, production began on “Friday the 13th.” A palpable buzz could be felt among the cast and crew as they waited with anticipation for nightfall and the first glimpse of Derek Mears stepping onto the set as one of Hollywood’s most infamous killer, Jason Voorhees.
The Art of the Kill…
For the filmmakers, making all of the deaths in the film memorable was essential to revitalizing the franchise. “We knew when we took this on that the deaths were one of the most important aspects of the film,” says Andrew Form. “The one thing we didn’t realize was just how many deaths there are in a `Friday the 13th’ film. Each death has to feel different and unique. You can’t just kill everybody with a machete because that gets really old and boring. Luckily, Damian Shannon and Mark Swift came up with some really clever deaths that audiences will go home talking about.”
“The ride we’re hoping to present is a total rollercoaster and, if we do it well, there will be a lot of phenomenal scares that will have audiences on the edge of their seat,” says Brad Fuller. “Sean Cunningham created a great villain. When it comes down to it, people love to watch Jason kill. That’s why people go to these movies.”
“Just so all the fans know, they can be completely assured that they will see all of the iconic elements from the franchise that they have grown to love,” says Form. “In this film, we’re bringing back the fun along with the intense violence, unique kills and great scares. It’s all there.”
Marcus Nispel teases, “The sleeping bag-it sums up everything you want to achieve with a `Friday the 13th’ kill. It’s scary. It gets under your skin. It allows you to laugh somehow… but I think it’s more of a panicky laugh.”
Friday, the 13th (2009)
Directed by: Marcus Nispel
Starring: Jared Padalecki, Derek Mears, Amanda Righetti, Danielle Panabaker, Travis Van Winkle, Aaron Yoo, Adam Finberg, Nick Mennell, Jonathan Sadowski, Nana Visitor
Screenplay by: Damian Shannon, Mark Swift
Production Design by: Jeremy Conway
Cinematography by: Daniel Pearl
Film Editing by: Ken Blackwell
Costume Design by: Marian Ceo
Art Direction by: John Frick
Music by: Steve Jablonsky
MPAA Rating: R for language and sexual content.
Studio: New Line Cinema
Release Date: February 13, 2009
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