Friday the 13th is a 2009 American horror film directed by Marcus Nispel, and written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. It is a reboot of the Friday the 13th film series, whose last film was the 2003 crossover film Freddy vs. Jason. Nispel also helmed the 2003 remake of Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, while Shannon and Swift wrote the screenplay for Freddy vs. Jason. The film stars Derek Mears as Jason Voorhees, with Jared Padalecki and Amanda Righetti portraying the male and female leads, respectively. Set for a Friday, February 13, 2009 release, the film will take "elements from all three [of the first] movies".

New Line Cinema's Toby Emmerich approached Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form of Platinum Dunes about restarting Friday the 13th in the same fashion that they had done with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. The trio agreed but first had to spend over a year securing the film rights from all respective parties, namely, Paramount Pictures, New Line and Sean Cunningham's Crystal Lake Entertainment. Since Paramount still owned certain copyrights to the first films, the remake initially could not use anything from the original series. Paramount, who wanted to be included, approached the producers and gave them license to use anything from the original films, including the title. With Paramount on board, Fuller and Form decided they wanted to use pieces from each of the first three films. Fuller stated, "I think there are moments we want to address, like how does the hockey mask happen. It'll happen differently in our movie than in the third one. Where is Jason from, why do these killings happen, and what is Crystal Lake?" The producers expressed an interest in using the character of Tommy Jarvis and stated that they were working out an original story for Jason that would make sense. Ultimately, it was decided that Friday the 13th would not be an origin story, but that the audience would get a sense of the history as the film progressed. The audience will see Jason transition from wearing a bag over his head-similar to Friday the 13th Part 2-to finding and actually placing the hockey mask over his face, whereas in Friday the 13th Part III he obtains the mask off-screen and comes out of the barn already wearing it.

Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, writers of Freddy vs. Jason, were announced in October 2007 to have been hired to pen a script for the remake. The film is being produced by Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller through Bay's production company Platinum Dunes, for New Line Cinema. Director Jonathan Liebesman was originally in negotiations to direct the remake in February 2006, but was replaced by Marcus Nispel, director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake of 2003, in November 2007. Nispel was apprehensive to take the job, primarily on the idea of taking over another film franchise, but Fuller finally convinced him.

Stuntman Derek Mears was hired to portray Jason Voorhees at the recommendation of makeup special effects supervisor Scott Stoddard. Mears's pleasant demeanor had the studio worried about his ability to portray such a menacing character on screen, but Mears assured them that he was up to the role. Jared Padalecki signed on as the lead male who investigates what happened at Crystal Lake, with Amanda Righetti taking the female lead. Danielle Panabaker, Jonathan Sadowski, Travis Van Winkle, Aaron Yoo, Julianna Guill round out the rest of the cast. Nana Visitor has been cast as Pamela Voorhees, with a young Jason to be played by Caleb Guss.

Amanda Righetti had not read the script when she was initially offered the role. Wanting to be apart of the Friday the 13th franchise from the start, Righetti admitted that she was sold on the idea of acting in the film after she did read the script.

• Official Movie Web Site

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