INTERVIEW: Men behind monsters talk about making of 'Freddy vs. Jason'
By Aaron Mento
The Daily Aztec (San Diego State U.)
07/30/2003
(U-WIRE) SAN DIEGO -- The wait is finally over. And no, I'm not talking about "Bad Boys II." Freddy Krueger, last seen wearing a dark trench coat and an even darker persona, is dusting off his trusty fedora and breaking out the old-school glove. Jason Voorhees, last seen wrecking shop somewhere in outer space, is spit-shining his hockey mask while Doc Brown chauffeurs his uber-ass back a sequel or two. The timing couldn't be more perfect. While Michael Myers is hard at work busting bones with Busta Rhymes, the two real heavyweight champions of horror are busy sharpening their weapons, downing raw eggs and doing one-handed push-ups in the rain. Fasten your seatbelts folks, because its time to watch the two sultans of slice beat the un-living hell out of each other. "Freddy vs. Jason" is coming!
"It would be like King Kong vs. Godzilla," producer Sean S. Cunningham said with excitement at the San Diego Comic Convention.
Cunningham, the man responsible for the very first "Friday the 13th" movie, is also responsible for perhaps one of the most exciting ideas in horror history.
Unfortunately, it didn't come together as quickly as intended.
"It was 10 years ago I had the idea, and I thought it would get started very quickly," Cunningham said. "The picture was basically green-lighted for like six years."
Due to numerous setbacks, such as New Line owning the "Nightmare" franchise, and Paramount owning "Friday the 13th," "Freddy vs. Jason" seemed more like a rumor that was too good to be true. Just like the life cycles of Freddy and Jason, the rumor would surface, then die off, then come to life once again, and then get killed off one more time.
Once ownership rights were finally taken care of, more obstacles quickly cluttered the long road toward filming.
"Everybody had a different idea of how to do the script," Cunningham explained while remembering some earlier attempts. Some versions included classic characters from each franchise teaming up to battle both foes, while others were bred of a "Look how smart I am" "Scream" sensibility.
While the tortoise pace development of "Freddy vs. Jason" seemed to irritate and depress some fans, it seems that in the end, time was definitely on their side. By not filming some of the earlier and much criticized scripts, and by waiting until after the death of "Scream," New Line Cinema has ensured the best possible product for the fans of both franchises. This was something that was very important to Cunningham.
"New Line committed enough money to really make it a first class production," he said.
But New Line didn't stop there. Seeing the new life breathed into the "Child's Play" series after "Bride of Chucky," New Line secured its director, Ronny Yu, to also direct "Freddy vs. Jason." A famously strong Hong Kong filmmaker with a dynamic visual style, Yu was the perfect director to ensure that this movie would not fall into the common trenches of horror mediocrity.
But what would "Freddy vs. Jason" be like without the main attractions? Robert Englund, the man who has brilliantly played Freddy through all seven movies, has returned once again to haunt our nightmares.
"When Freddy really hit for me, which was about 1985, I just made a conscious decision to enjoy it," Robert Englund explained.
Without a doubt, Englund's unique approach toward Freddy's movement and dialect has made him the only man for the job. Throughout each "Nightmare" film, Englund has brought an energy and spirit that could never be rivaled by any other actor in his place.
Jason, on the other hand, is an entirely different story. Because of the signature hockey mask covering his face, a few different actors have been able to play the part of Jason Voorhees. Kane Hodder, who has done a bang-up job with Jason in the last four films, was replaced by towering stunt man, Ken Kirzinger, for "Freddy vs. Jason." It seems as though Yu was not as familiar with the "Friday the 13th" films, and his first introduction to Jason was through a piece of graphic art. In the drawing, Jason was exaggeratedly tall, and this was the image that Yu wanted to convey.
"It was a very fortunate thing for me, but I'm sure that Kane was disappointed." Kirzinger politely explained. "The only thing that I could do was to try and make the character my own."
Censorship can kill a good horror movie, so with Freddy and Jason in line to do battle, exactly how much of the bloody carnage would we actually get to see up on the big screen?
"Ronny went for it on this one," Englund said with a wicked smile. "He's not apologetic about the genre, he embraces it."
So there you have it; the classic Englund as Freddy, the towering Kirzinger as Jason, Yu at the helm with a big budget from New Line, and topping it off is bloody carnage untouched by the MPAA. Who says that nightmares don't come true?
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