By Last month came word that “Hannibal” creator Bryan Fuller was abruptly exiting the “Friday the 13th” prequel series “Crystal Lake” which was in the works for the streaming service Peacock.
At the time, it was indicated that A24 was retooling the project behind the scenes with the studio “going a different way with the material”, according to Fuller who was to serve as writer, showrunner and executive producer. Jim Danger Gray, who was to be co-showrunner, also exited.
Now, a new report at The Wrap has gone into the behind-the-scenes events that led to Fuller’s exit and, in the process, revealed more details about his vision for the show which is now stuck in development hell.
Charlize Theron was reportedly being eyed to play Pamela Voorhees in the series which had already made a deposit for soundstages in Canada with crew beginning to make plans for a seven-month shoot.
Then, three months out from filming, A24 abruptly fired Fuller and Gray – halting development. The reasoning was being put down to a show “plagued by inexperienced production executives making questionable decisions, problems with the show’s writing staff and conflicts between showrunners and executives”.
As one insider put it: “It felt like everybody on the Bryan/Jim side were trying very hard to make the show. A24 felt like they were doing everything they could to not make the show.” It’s doubly strange as A24, which has been trying to do more commercial projects, was key to untangling the messy legal rights surrounding the franchise.
Each season was to be a “deconstruction” of the first four films and would incorporate lore from several sequels but remix the material – just like Fuller did with “Hannibal”. One source says: “We had the mask, we had the sequels, we could do whatever we wanted. He had a good path forward.”
“Scream” creator Kevin Williamson wrote an episode for the series described as the show’s “Red Wedding” episode and was to unfold entirely on a frozen lake.
The series was intended to have eight episodes per season, budgeted at around $85 million for the entire season, but one source indicated A24 wanted to cut that in half.
A24 is apparently still committed to making the show, although it’s unclear if the studio will use the original Fuller scripts or start from scratch.
Head over to The Wrap for the full piece which is one hell of a read.
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