After lending his talents to the Predator franchise with Prey and Predator: Badlands, director Dan Trachtenberg is shifting his focus to something a bit more family friendly. Deadline reports that Trachtenberg will direct an animated adaptation of Freddy the 13th, the graphic novel written by Yehudi Mercado.
Per Deadline, Freddy the 13th “follows the trials and tribulations of the hapless Freddy Vanwinkle, the thirteenth son of a thirteenth-born son who fails at everything in contrast to his brilliant siblings. One night, while looking after his nephew and niece Logan and Lola, he accidentally kills the legendary slasher Nighty Night and automatically inherits the mantle of the monster. With rival killers emerging out of the shadows, Freddy has thirteen nights to break the curse.”
Trachtenberg will produce the film with his longtime collaborator Ben Rosenblatt. The announcement comes on the heels of his three-year first look deal with Paramount, whose animation division will be producing the film. Freddy the 13th will reportedly be a PG-rated film with “scares and laughs [for] the whole family.”
Luckily, this isn’t the first time Trachtenberg has worked in animation. He also directed the adult animated anthology Predator: Killer of Killers, which hit Hulu last summer, and told stories of various yautja throughout the galaxy. While details on this new project are still forthcoming, including a cast, it looks like it won’t be too far out of the director’s wheelhouse — even though it’s only his second non-Predator film, aside from 10 Cloverfield Lane.
No release date has been announced for the new Freddy the 13th movie. Stay tuned to FANGORIA for more updates.
