Trivia: In Lori's dream, kids teasing a young Jason place a burlap sack on his head, similar to the burlap sack Jason wore in Friday the 13th Part 2. Jason started wearing the goalie mask in Friday the 13th part 3. (00:08:00)
Trivia: The principal at Laurie's High School is Robert Shaye, the producer for all of the Elm Street flicks, he even has a part as himself in New Nightmare, and a cameo in Freddy's Dead. The DVD has a deleted scene in which he has a couple of lines.
Trivia: Kane Hodder, who had portrayed Jason in the previous four films featuring the character, was keen on reprising the role and had even been given a copy of the final script. However, Jason was subsequently recast, with Hodder claiming he had been kept out-of-the-loop as to why. This decision caused some backlash from "Friday the 13th" fans. Director Ronny Yu explained that while Hodder was wonderful in the role, he chose Ken Kirzinger for the part, as Kirzinger was slightly taller and broader than Hodder (thus giving more contrast with the much shorter Robert Englund as Freddy), and because he wanted a slightly different take on the character. (He felt that Hodder was somewhat too "aggressive", whereas he wanted Jason to be slower, smoother and more deliberate in how he was portrayed.) Though Hodder was disappointed and angry with the decision, he holds no grudge against Kirzinger, who had actually worked with him on the eighth film as a stunt-double.
Trivia: In several early drafts of the script, two twists were considered that would have connected the pasts of Freddy Kruger and Jason Vorhees. One considered twist was that Freddy either raped or had a consensual sexual encounter with Jason's mother, and as a result had unknowingly fathered Jason. Another twist considered was that Freddy had worked at Camp Crystal Lake in the past, and had either molested Jason as a child, or was somehow connected to his drowning, being a child murderer and potential sexual offender, thus giving Jason a motivation to track down and kill Freddy. Both ideas were eventually dropped, as producers felt they were too contrived and too dark for the film.
Trivia: The director, Ronny Yu, was reluctant to get involved with this movie as he knew nothing of Freddy or Jason, but that is exactly what New Line wanted: somebody with a fresh look and fresh ideas for the legendary franchises.
Trivia: Another potential ending suggested for this film involved Freddy and Jason awakening in Hell, Freddy had his arm back on and Jason's fingers had regenerated. They would proceed to face off for another fight only to be stopped by hooks and chains suddenly shooting out of everywhere and digging into their flesh. The movie would then end with Pinhead (from the "Hellraiser" series) coming out of the darkness and saying "Now what seems to be the problem?" This was eventually rejected as the director wasn't a fan of the Hellraiser franchise.
Trivia: Screenwriters Damian Shannon and Mark Swift were immediately hired by the studio to write the 2009 "Friday the 13th" reboot after "Freddy VS Jason" was completed, as producers had been highly impressed by their knowledge of the series and their work on the script for this film.
Trivia: One early considered script revolved around a cult of Freddy-worshipping teens called the "Fred-Heads", who sought to resurrect Freddy through a series of sacrifices. Jason would be brought back to life through a sacrifice in order to stop Freddy and the cult.
Trivia: At one point in time, a sequel titled "Freddy VS Jason VS Ash" was considered, which would have included Bruce Campbell's iconic cult-character "Ash" from the "Evil Dead" trilogy. This was partially inspired by several props from "Evil Dead II" (including the "Necronomicon" and "Death Dagger") being used in "Jason Goes to Hell" as an Easter-Egg. For a number of reasons (including legality issues over New Line not owning "Evil Dead" or the rights to the character Ash, and the decision to reboot the "Friday" and "Nightmare" franchises), the film never came to be, although it was eventually turned into a popular comic-book.
Trivia: In one early draft of the script, Jason Voorhees had actually been captured and restrained by authorities, and would spend much of the film on trial for his countless murders. His defense lawyer would have been the lead character.
Trivia: The magazine ad that Freddy's glove pops out of reads "Hard as Steel Dream Nails". (00:28:40)
Trivia: The screenwriters (and several other cast and crew members) were strongly against the scene in which Freddy is called a "faggot" by the character Kia, feeling it could be hurtful for any LGBT fans or suporters who saw the film. The line wasn't in the original script, but was rather a spur-of-the-moment improv on-set.
Trivia: Co-stars Zach Ward and Brendan Fletcher are good friends, and were excited when they were informed that they had been cast as brothers in the film.
Trivia: Robert Englund was excited at the casting of Katharine Isabelle as "Gibb", as he was a big fan of her cult-film "Ginger Snaps", a Canadian werewolf film.
Trivia: The film was in development for well over a decade, going through dozens of different screenwriters and scripts. Robert Shaye of New Line suggested that it may have had the highest number of drafts and writers working on it out of any film at the time. The producers felt that part of the issue in finding the right script is that many writers attempted to be "too creative" with the material, and fundamentally went against the core concepts and styles of the "Friday the 13th" and "Nightmare on Elm Street" franchises.
Trivia: Robert Englund's last official on-screen appearance as Freddy for over 14 years. The next time he played the character on-screen wouldn't be until a guest appearance on the sitcom "The Goldbergs" in 2018. Englund originally intended to retire completely from the character in 2014, but after the "Goldbergs" guest appearance, he's hinted that he'd be interested in playing the character in another film.
Answer: This is one of those questions where we'll probably never know the real reason because different people involved have different stories as to why Kirzinger was picked over Holder. Holder himself has said he doesn't know why he didn't reprise the role, especially since he was told he would and was given a script. Some accounts say Yu wanted Jason to tower over Freddy and Kirzinger is 2" taller than Holder. One of the casting directors said Yu thought Holder's version of Jason was too campy. Meanwhile, Yu said it was New Line Cinema's decision to recast Holder because they want to change the direction of the film and used this film as a reboot of the series.
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