Mark Pedowitz, the President of The CW, confirms at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour that the network is developing 'Friday the 13th' series.
- August 12, 2015
AceShowbiz -
"Friday the 13th" is heading to television. Mark Pedowitz, the President of The CW, confirmed on August 12 at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour that the network was developing "Friday the 13th", a horror series based on the long-running franchise.
Steve Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle, creators of the NBC series "The Pretender", will write the script for the series adaptation. "They are new in development," Pedowitz told Deadline. The duo will executive produce the series with Sean Cunningham, Randall Emmett, George Furla and Mark Canton.
The upcoming series will have a direct connection to masked serial killer Jason Vorhees. "I don't think we really wanted to do a show about a guy with a machete chasing girls in tube tops," Mitchell explained. "We couldn't do that on a weekly basis... So what ends up happening is, a cop comes into town, looking for his brother. He realizes his brother was there searching into the past murders, and realizes that his personal story is tied into Jason's personal story."
Since the franchise's debut in 1980, there have been more than 10 movies including the most recent one, 2009's "Friday the 13th" directed by Marcus Nispel. The next installment, similarly titled "Friday the 13th (2016)" and directed by David Bruckner, is going to hit theaters in the U.S. on May 13, 2016.
Besides "Friday The 13th", The CW is developing some series based on movies "The Notebook", "Little Women" and "Frequency", as well as an adaptation of Archie Comics' "Riverdale". "I'm a big believer in titles and franchises," said Pedowitz at TCA. "It makes them break out of the pack in some ways."
