Jason knows the "Friday the 13th" series better than creator Sean Cunningham. Not only is the guy a "F13" super encyclopedia but he has a ton of rare never before seen images from the various films. Needless to say we picked his brain and he spewed more "JGTH" facts at as than we could handle. Our simple quest for the answer to why the film didn't use the "Friday the 13th" moniker became a treasure trove of frequently asked questions that we didn't know the answers to, so we figured you may not either. That's were our love for sharing comes in.
Below is some information about the 1993 film that many love and others love to hate (we say it may just have the greatest opening 10 minutes of any slasher film). Also there are some rare never before seen images of Jason Voorhee's (Kane Hodder) in what may just be our favorite Jason look out of the series. So take that Wikepeida! Feast on it below.
THE ULTIMATE "JASON GOES TO HELL" OVERLOAD
After Paramount released Jason Takes Manhattan in 1989, they had no real plans to make another Friday the 13th movie. That fact plus Producer Frank Mancuso Jr. no longer having an interest in the franchise any more and Paramount's Friday the 13th television series being cancelled, left the door open for the the Friday the 13th franchise to be moved elsewhere.
Original Friday the 13th creator and director Sean Cunningham had some underlying rights to the franchise but had nothing to do with any of the sequels after the original 1980 film. He now saw an opportunity to purchase the full rights back from the Boston investors that had been financing the Friday the 13th films for Paramount throughout the 80's.
Sean's plan was to take the franchise to New Line Cinema in order to make Freddy vs Jason. Sean was very clear that his only intention of getting the rights of the franchise back was to make a Freddy vs Jason film. After Sean and NewLine secured the rights to make future films, plans shifted to make Freddy vs Jason.
Initial scripts that were created for Freddy vs Jason did not really excite the higher-ups at New Line. Then came rumblings in 1992 that New Line was interested in bringing Wes Craven back to make another Nightmare On Elm Street film, which turned out to be New Nightmare.
Sean Cunnigham figured that if New Line was going to make another Freddy movie, why not make another Jason movie in the interim and keep Jason Voorhees fresh in the minds of fans until Freddy vs Jason came to fruition.
Sean hired his son's, Noel Cunningham, childhood friend Adam Marcus to direct the film. Adam was fresh out of film school and Sean wanted someone with energy to reintroduce Jason to audiences. The one catch was the script for the film.
Numerous script rewrites delayed production. One script had Mrs. Voorhees in a weird sexual relationship with Jason. Other scripts had Jason's brother Elias as the killer. That story followed a direct connection to Jason Takes Manhattan where Jason's body washed up on the shores of Crystal Lake after he is destroyed in the New York Sewers. Elias takes the body and eats Jason's heart, injesting the evil and becoming the new killer. The evil heart story line was eventually used for the body hopping scenario. The Elias character was eventually morphed into Jason's father and at that point Jason's father was even considered to be the killer.
New Line would not greenlight the new Jason movie unless Jason was featured in the film. So, a compromise was formed and Jason would be featured in the beginning and end of the film. Once New Line saw that Jason would be featured in the end all, be all stalk and slash scenes in the opening of Jason Goes To Hell, they approved the start of production.
The deal with why the "Friday the 13th" title is missing is always muddled in controversy and misdirection. However, from what I have been told, Paramount does indeed own the title "Friday the 13th" (Jason goes to Hell was made by New Line). They (Paramount) also own the home video rights to the frist 8 movies and all characters and storylines held within. That is why Paramount was brought aboard for the reboot last year (Friday the 13th 2009), so the movie could use the title as well as the opening scene with Mrs. Voorhees and a few other pieces of dialogue. Some people point to Sean Cunningham not wanting the Friday the 13th title or the hockey mask in Jason Goes To Hell, but actually their hands were tied by rights issues.
