Return of the Mask

Image credit: James Dittiger

FREDDY VS. JASON The 2003 clash of the slasher titans was the last time we saw the volatile Mr. Voorhees on screen

We've seen King Kong battle Godzilla. Alien had a slime-off with Predator. But recent news of a Friday the 13th remake is bringing a new twist to the monster-mashup genre: Michael Myers just brought Jason Voorhees back from the dead. It's been four years since the hockey-masked psycho's last killing spree in 2003's Freddy vs. Jason. But in the wake of Rob Zombie's retooling of Halloween, which opened at No. 1 with $31 million, Paramount and New Line have ramped up development on their reboot of the Camp Crystal Lake creepfest with producer Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes production company. ''Halloween's success wasn't lost on anybody,'' says Paramount production president Brad Weston, who aims to begin filming next February. ''It felt like the right time.''

This forthcoming outing has been held up until now because Paramount and New Line — the studios that have collectively produced 11 Jason movies over nearly three decades — have been haggling over the rights. All that should be neatly resolved soon, now that both sides have seen clear proof that there's money to be made in fresh takes on famous slasher flicks. ''The hard part was getting the two studios to agree,'' says producer Brad Fuller. Plot details are still being finalized, but Fuller will make one guarantee: ''Halloween spent so much time on Mike Myers' youth.... We're not going to do that. We want it to be horrifying and fun. It'll be nice to have Jason run around and chase people again.''