New Line Cinema’sFreddy vs. Jasonwas a huge crossover success forFriday the 13thandA Nightmare on Elm Street, as well as New Line Studios. It grossed $114 million, making it the highest grossingFriday the 13thmovie in the series and was the second highest grossing movie in theNightmare on Elm Streetseries.Freddy vs. Jasonwas Robert Englund’s final performance as Freddy Krueger, but a brand new in-house memo reveals that Freddy was to be killed off for good byThe Evil Dead’s Ashley J. Williams (Bruce Campbell) in the proposed sequel that never made it to the big screen.
The shocking news comes to us viaBloody Disgustingwho obtained an internal memo from New Line’s Creative Executive Jeff Katz. The memo was written by Katz and VP Stokely Chaffin and sent to President and COO Tobey Emmerich in an effort to explain why Ash would be the best candidate to be involved in the crossover sequel that was expected to bring in yet another horror icon.Halloween’s Michael Meyers, as well asHellraiser’s Pinhead,Leprechaun,Child’s Playkiller doll Chucky, and evenPhantasm’s Tall Man, were all discussed at one point in time for inclusion in the sequel toFreddy vs. Jason.
The internal memo was used as a way to pitchAsh into the world of Freddy and Jasonand it was entitled: “Why Ash Works.” It made the argument why Ash was the best candidate, while the other aforementioned characters were too expensive and they “flat out don’t fit in the Freddy and Jason worlds.” The memo goes on to say thatRobert Englundwas sick of putting on the Freddy makeup and even brings up personal conversations with the horror icon about the possibility of Ash killing Freddy off for good. The memo explains.
“Per our conversations with him (Englund) in the past, he agrees that the fans will embrace and accept the idea of Ash killing off our burned villain for good, as opposed to their reaction should a 16-year-old virgin girl do the job (again).”
Unfortunately, theFreddy vs. Jason vs. Ashsequel never came into fruition andFreddy vs. Jasonwas the last time that we sawRobert Englund as Freddy Krueger. Another interesting note from the memo is that Bruce Campbell would have taken a pay cut to make the movie happen, which is strange since Katz and Chaffin were fighting so hard to prove what an asset that he would have been to the sequel. What an amazing end to Freddy that could have been and what a blown opportunity.
The new internal memo comes after the original teaser trailer popped up online for the ill-fated originalFreddy vs. Jasonfrom back in 1997. Rob Bottin was attached to direct the movie that never materialized, much likeFreddy vs. Jason Vs. Ash. you may check out the internal memo in its entirety at the link below and dream about what could have been viaBloody-Disgusting.com.
