Freddy vs. Jason: 10 Things You Didn’t Know
By Jeremy Dick
Photo from Rob Zombie’s website
6. Peter Jackson and Rob Zombie both turned down directing the film
Peter Jackson will forever be hailed as one of cinema’s all-time greatest directors. The Lord of the Rings film franchise is one of the biggest in history. But before he made his name as the man behind those Frodo movies, Jackson could have been involved with Freddy Krueger and Jason.
Impressed with his cult classic horror film Bad Taste, New Line hired Jackson to co-write a script for their next A Nightmare on Elm Street, which would have been Part 6. Although he was paid, his draft was scrapped by the studio in favor of shooting Freddy’s Dead, using another writer’s script. After Freddy’s Dead failed to impress most critics, New Line came back and offered Jackson the chance to direct the next planned movie, Freddy vs. Jason. He was no longer interested.
But another name director was also in the running to direct Freddy vs. Jason. This would be Rob Zombie, who did the Halloween reboot films. At the time, Zombie was taking an interest in becoming a horror filmmaker, and this could have been a great gig for him. Zombie ended up turning it down, however, as he was entering pre-production on his first film House of 1000 Corpses and wanted to focus on that.