Development Influenced by fan desire for a crossover film with a fight between Freddy and Jason,
New Line Cinema and
Paramount Pictures tried to make a
Freddy vs. Jason movie in 1987.
Frank Mancuso Jr. enlisted
Tom McLoughlin to unite the studios, but no agreement could be made. When
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan failed at the box office,
Sean S. Cunningham wanted to reacquire the rights to
Friday the 13th and begin working with New Line Cinema on
Freddy vs. Jason. Paramount and New Line wanted the license to the other's character so they could control a crossover film. Negotiations on the project collapsed, and Paramount made
Jason Takes Manhattan. After
Jason Takes Manhattan was released in 1989, the rights reverted to Scuderi, Minasian, and Barsamianto (who sold them to New Line). Two years after initial talks fell apart, director
Joseph Zito attempted to revive the project, but neither Mancuso nor
Robert Shaye were interested in pursuing the project. Before Cunningham could begin to work on
Freddy vs. Jason,
Wes Craven returned to New Line to make
New Nightmare. This put
Freddy vs. Jason on hold, but allowed Cunningham to bring Jason back with
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. The ninth installment "turned a healthy profit". In a 1995 interview with
Fangoria, Craven was dismissive of the idea of
Freddy vs. Jason, saying it was taking "something that had a lot of impact and dignity and dragging it down to another level." Cunningham's "frustration" with the delayed development of
Freddy vs. Jason led him to create
Jason X to keep the series alive. Based on
Jason Takes Manhattans concept of taking Jason away from Crystal Lake, the tenth film put the titular character in space. The film lost its biggest supporter with the resignation of president of production
Michael De Luca. Lack of support let the finished film sit for two years before it was released on April 26, 2002. It was the series' lowest-grossing film at the domestic box office, and had the largest budget of any of the films to date.
Jason Goes to Hell duo
Adam Marcus and
Dean Lorey were courted early on, but no official deal was finalized. New Line spent a reported $6 million on script development alone from several different writers. Lewis Abernathy, writer of
Deepstar Six and
House IV, was the first screenwriter attached to the film. Abernathy sought to direct his script, entitled
Nightmare 13: Freddy Meets Jason, but his limited directing experience prohibited him from doing so.
David J. Schow was given an offer to write the script because he just happened to walk by De Luca's office one day. In 1994, De Luca passed on the draft and turned to
Brannon Braga and
Ronald D. Moore, who wrote
Jason vs. Freddy, which had a more "adult tone" than previous entries. The writing duo would depart the film and would be replaced by
Peter Briggs, who impressed the studio with his previous
crossover attempt,
Alien vs. Predator. Briggs' draft saw numerous returning characters across several films. By 1996,
Demon Knight scribes Cyrus Voris and Ethan Reiff were commissioned by Cunningham to write a new script, under the title
Freddy vs. Jason: Millennium Massacre, with
Rob Bottin, known for his make-up work on
The Thing and
Total Recall, directing. New Line previously offered the spot to
Guillermo del Toro and
Peter Jackson to no avail. Bottin opted to drop the current draft of the script and penned his own
treatment.
David S. Goyer and his writing partner
James Dale Robinson were subsequently hired to flesh out Bottin's treatment into a screenplay. No parties involved were happy with the script, leading to Goyer and Robinson exiting the film. Bottin and his treatment were retained despite clashing with the studio over the film's budget. Screenwriting duo
Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, known for their work on
King of the Hill, were selected by the director to write a new script. The draft was widely disliked at Cunningham Productions. Bottin initially considered revising the script himself, but ultimately left the film altogether. In 1999,
Mark Verheiden entered the project and proposed releasing the film with two different endings; one with Freddy winning and one with Jason winning. The next year, De Luca hired
Mark Protosevich to write an entirely new script.
Jason X writer
Todd Farmer wrote for the film as well. Newcomers
Mark Swift & Damian Shannon were hired after delivering a pitch that De Luca was happy with in March 2002. Goyer returned to the project once again in an effort to trim "every ounce of fat" from Swift and Shannon's 120-page script. Wes Craven, Guillermo del Toro, and
Ronny Yu all declined the opportunity to direct the film.
Rob Zombie turned the film down in favor to helm
House of 1000 Corpses. Then up-and-coming filmmaker
Jaume Balagueró campaigned to direct the film. Yu would ultimately sign on to direct the film in May 2002 after being given an "enormous" amount of creative freedom. The setting of Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital and the Hypnocil drug were plot elements introduced in
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.
Casting In 1999,
Robert Englund officially signed onto the film, marking his eighth appearance as the character of Freddy Krueger. However, conflicting reports emerged with
IGN stating that the film was looking to reinvent the character, thus ditching Hodder.
Monica Keena was selected to portray the film's lead after an "extensive search", while the supporting cast were made up of Canadian actors, including
Katharine Isabelle,
Lochlyn Munro,
Brendan Fletcher,
Tom Butler, David Kopp,
Jesse Hutch,
Kyle Labine and
Zack Ward.
Betsy Palmer was courted to reprise her role as Pamela Voorhees from
Friday the 13th, but declined due to salary disputes. Actress
Paula Shaw would assume the role from Palmer. Just one week before production commenced,
Jason Ritter was cast in place of Renfro.
Recasting Jason New Line, thinking that
Freddy vs. Jason needed a fresh start, chose a different actor to play Jason. Cunningham disagreed with their decision, believing that
Kane Hodder, who had played Jason in the previous four films, was the best choice for the role. Although Hodder received a script for
Freddy vs. Jason and met with director
Ronny Yu and New Line executives, Yu and Matthew Barry felt that the role should be recast to fit Yu's image of Jason. The role went to
Ken Kirzinger, a Canadian stuntman who worked on
Jason Takes Manhattan. Yu said that Kirzinger was hired because he was taller than Robert Englund, who played Freddy Krueger. Kirzinger is tall, compared to the Hodder, and Yu wanted a much taller actor than the Englund. Kirzinger believed that his experience on
Part VIII (doubling for Hodder in two scenes) and his height helped him land the part. ==Music==