RONNY YU: It’s already in the script because the writers are so smart, they came up with this ingenious plan using the human factor, the teenagers who are usually some dumb blondes or other dumb kids running around screaming. But this time around, they gave them a lot of credit. It’s these people who turn the tables around and become the means to get these two together.
SEAN CUNNINGHAM: These are not the horror movie teens of the 1970s. This is a different breed.
I’ll give you an example of a scene that’s not in the movie: A long time ago we were trying to figure this kind of stuff out, and we were playing around with a notion of an idyllic winter scene. There’s little kids playing out on the pond, it’s about as lovely as it could be. It’s like little league, nobody is getting hurt. And suddenly it’s revealed that Jason is the goalie. A kid comes by him and tries to score, and Jason knocks the s**t out of him. Then all of a sudden the kids seem to get a little bit bigger. They are whipping the pucks at him and he’s stopping them and getting hit by them. Then finally, Freddy is there with an ice hockey stick and he’s whacking the ice hard. The cracks start to open up and Jason drops below the ice and is drowning. Then all of a sudden he wakes up. So Jason’s just had this dream that involves Freddy. I don’t know where we’d go with that. If you did something like that, the audience would believe it. We could build a story around that kind of thing. But we didn’t go down that way, so how do you do that? You would do it like that somehow. To be specific, the idea of Freddy getting into Jason’s head – how is that done? In terms of this genre, in a very plausible way. Without that, the story doesn’t work. Any fan’s going to go, “What a minute. Jason’s a big lug and ….” It’s handled very, very well.
I think the cool thing about this movie is that it’s around 90 minutes, and it’s about as visceral of an experience as you’re going to get from any movie in either of the series. When you think about it, it actually holds up. The logic is there. That’s something that, afterwards when you walk out of the theater, you start really thinking about it. When you look back you will find that it’s actually a really well constructed idea.
If they ask you back after this one’s released to do another one, will you do it?
RONNY YU: Oh absolutely, sure. I mean, really truly it’s up to the audience. The audience will tell us, “You have to do the next one.” It’s not whether you like it or not, you have to do it.
What is the strangest rumor you’ve seen on the Internet about “Freddy vs. Jason?”
JEFF KATZ, NEW LINE STUDIO EXECUTIVE: I’m on there all the time. I know that right now we are the #4 most searched for movie on Yahoo. I’m literally checking this stuff 25 times a day because I’m obsessive compulsive. So I’ll go on to the chat boards and read. The most ridiculous? Actually the one that was around for the longest time was that there was a whole sect of Jason fans that got really upset because a rumor had gotten out that Jason was going to talk, which would have been interesting. Frankly he’s been beaten to s**t so many times I don’t know what he’d say. How could he form a word?
SEAN CUNNINGHAM: But he was going to talk with an English accent (laughing).
JEFF KATZ: That’s right. That was going to be the big ‘reveal.’
"Freddy vs Jason" Release Date: August 15, 2003
"Freddy vs Jason" was directed by Ronny Yu and is rated R for pervasive strong horror violence/gore, gruesome images, sexuality, drug use and language.
Interview with Robert Englund ('Freddy') and Ken Kirzinger ('Jason')
"Freddy vs Jason" Premiere Coverage - Interviews and Photos
