Exclusive: Producers of Award-Winning Elm Street Documentary Announce Definitive New Friday the 13th Retrospective
Steve Barton
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We’ve just gotten word that the documentary Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of ‘Friday the 13th’ began filming on April 24th in Los Angeles, New York, Connecticut and Vancouver.
Inspired by author Peter M. Bracke’s bestselling book, this comprehensive retrospective from Panic Productions and Hutson Ranch Media promises to be the definitive look at the making of the iconic horror franchise.
From its inception in 1980, the Friday the 13th film series has proven to be as unstoppable at the box office as its hockey-masked, machete-wielding villain Jason Voorhees, who has terrorized the fictional town of Crystal Lake for more than 30 years. Since then, Friday the 13th has become a true multimedia juggernaut, having spawned twelve feature films, a syndicated television drama, and an extensive line of merchandise and collectibles. What’s more, revenue figures are as staggering as they are relentless: over 95 million tickets sold and nearly $600 million in domestic box office receipts alone.
Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of ‘Friday the 13th’ promises to give horror fans a unique insider’s look into the iconic horror series, featuring over 100 interviews with cast and crew spanning all twelve films and the television series, many of whom have never before publicly discussed their involvement in the long-running franchise. The documentary is written and directed by Daniel Farrands and produced by Thommy Hutson, who previously combined forces on the most acclaimed horror franchise documentary ever made, 2010’s Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy, an epic four-hour journey that chronicled the making of director Wes Craven’s seminal 1984 shocker and its seven sequels. Independently produced, financed, and released by Farrands and Hutson, Never Sleep Again won the The Academy of Science Fiction and Horror’s prestigious Saturn Award in 2010 for “Best DVD Release” as well as two Home Media Magazine Reaper Awards for “Best Direct-to-Video Release” and “Best of Show.”
“Never Sleep Again is widely-regarded as the definitive retrospective on Freddy Krueger and the eight Nightmare on Elm Street films so we thought it only fitting that Jason, who has appeared in twelve films, be given his due,” says writer/director Daniel Farrands, who previously served as editor and co-publisher of the groundbreaking book which inspired the new documentary and produced Paramount Home Entertainment’s Deluxe Edition DVD releases of the Friday the 13th films. A veteran of the horror genre, Farrands wrote the screenplay for Dimension Films’ Halloween 6 and produced Lionsgate’s hit supernatural thriller The Haunting in Connecticut, which grossed $80 million at the box office worldwide. “I literally grew up on the Friday the 13th films,” says Farrands, “and in a very real way the series is responsible for my career in the film industry. It is truly an honor to chronicle the history of the series in a comprehensive documentary that I hope will serve as a worthy companion piece to the films and satisfy the series’ loyal fans.”
Producer Thommy Hutson, who, in addition to Never Sleep Again, also wrote and produced definitive documentaries on Scream and The Return of the Living Dead, agrees. “After exploring the success and making of nightmares, ghost-faced killers, and wise-cracking zombies, the time felt right to document the rise of one of the most well-known, feared, and loved villains of our generation,” he says. “I am thrilled to be part of a project that will undoubtedly be the definitive story of not just Jason Voorhees but the film franchise that created him. It’s a campfire tale long overdue.”
Upon its original release as a collectible hardcover edition in October 2005, Crystal Lake Memories was instantly hailed as one of the most lavish, comprehensive, and meticulously researched books ever created about a film series. Author Peter M. Bracke crafted a narrative as full of shocks and surprises as the films themselves, painting a graphically compelling picture of one of horror’s most enduring franchises. In April 2012 an all-new and fully expanded eBook edition of Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of ‘Friday the 13th’ was released to the iBooks, Kindle, and Nook platforms. “As a life-long fan of Friday the 13th, it was a dream come true to document the series with the original hardcover and electronic versions of Crystal Lake Memories,” says Bracke. “So I am absolutely thrilled that the team behind Never Sleep Again has decided to tackle all things Jason and Friday the 13th. It is simply an amazing honor to be a part of this ‘visual companion piece’ to Crystal Lake Memories, and I can’t wait to see it!”
The documentary Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of ‘Friday the 13th’ is slated for a late 2012 release.
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