'FREDDY vs JASON vs ASH' NOT DEAD YET

From Creature Corner:
If you’re a genre fan, New Line Cinema would be a great place to work. Not only is the company one of the busiest genre producers around - and responsible for the creation of horror icon Freddy Krueger and the resurrection of Jason Voorhees and the Friday the 13th franchise - but there’s also a real entrepreneurial spirit at the company which means that if you’re former production head Michael De Luca you get the chance to write the tepid 1995 John Carpenter film In the Mouth of Madness(the opening scenes were interesting but it was all downhill from there)and if you’re current big honcho Toby Emmerich you get to write the superb 2000 time-travel thriller Frequency. Heck, if you’re a janitor at New Line, you could probably write 976-Evil 3. If you work at New Line, and you have an idea, someone will listen to you.

Jeff Katz is an executive at New Line Cinema, and a big genre fan, and, as many fans now know, he wrote a 20 page treatment for Freddy Vs. Jason 2, which has been read by everyone except me(someone send me a copy). The project is notable because it teams Freddy and Jason with Ash, the darkly comic hero from the Evil Dead films. The Corner had a chance to briefly chat with Katz and ask him about the status of Freddy Vs. Jason 2.

Q: Can you confirm Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash or Freddy Vs. Jason 2 as it’s currently titled?

Katz: There’s nothing official on the Freddy Vs. Jason 2 front yet, but I wrote the treatment and we’re all very excited about it.

Q: Are you worried that Ash - given the fact that none of the Evil Dead films were box office hits - might be too obscure of a character for mainstream audiences - fans who aren’t as familiar with the Evil Dead films as the cult audience is?

Katz: It’s not about box office and what would make for the most commercial sequel. It’s about delivering a story that will be better than the first and a story that makes sense given the continuity of the franchises.

Q: Everyone talks about teaming Freddy and Jason with Michael Myers from the Halloween series. What about Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Michael Myers?

Katz: As a fan, I think Michael would be an ill-fit with Freddy and Jason as - in Michael Myers’ universe in the Halloween films - Michael is a real guy, Thorn notwithstanding.

Q: A lot of fans of the Jason Voorhees character felt that Jason was underutilized in Freddy Vs. Jason, and that he was nothing more than a second banana in the film. How are you going to make Jason more interesting in the sequel, given that he’s a sullen, voiceless monster with no emotions?

Katz: We heard that from fans too and I think part of that’s because Freddy has so much personality, especially compared to Jason, and any other character would be overshadowed standing next to Freddy. My entire idea is to help turn Jason into a bit more of a three-dimensional character without losing what makes him a scary badass. We have a cool twist I’m hoping will happen.

Q: It would’ve easy for you, given the success of Freddy Vs. Jason, to rush a sequel into development, but you’re clearly taking your time. You must really care?

Katz: Absolutely. We’re not rushing. Nobody around here wants to make Halloween: Resurrection.

Thorn? He must be a horror fan.