Though the feature film reboot of Friday the 13th just landed a director, the franchise may also soon be getting new life on the small screen.  An hourlong dramatic TV series adaptation of the horror franchise is currently in development, as Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films and Crystal Lake Entertainment are teaming up to bring a longform iteration of Jason Voorhees to fruition.  The director of the very first Friday the 13th film, Sean S. Cunningham, will be involved in the potential series as an executive producer, and the idea is to craft a contemporary Crystal Lake-set story that spans multiple time periods.  Hit the jump for more on the Friday the 13th TV show.

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Image via Warner Bros./Paramount

Per Deadline, Bill Basso and Jordu Schell will script the Friday the 13th TV series, which focuses on “the eclectic characters of Crystal Lake who are forced to confront the return of the killer, as new secrets about his wacky family are revealed.”  The potential show is currently not set up at a network so there’s no guarantee it will make it to air, but the success of genre-oriented fare on television with The Walking Dead and American Horror Story—in addition to the brand recognition—certainly bodes well for Friday the 13th’s chances.

The report adds that the show is intended to span multiple time periods, so my guess is there will be an overall mythology to the Voorhees family that is doled out in flashback over the life of the series, while the week-to-week stories will see Jason tormenting a new (or old) victim.  A guy wearing a mask isn’t necessarily the ideal television protagonist, so presumably the producers have a core set of non-murderous characters in mind as well.

Again, this is still early days and there’s no guarantee this will get past the script stage, but with cable television now giving HBO a run for its money in the gore/violence department, it wouldn’t be too difficult to translate the horror franchise to the small screen.  In the immediate future, though, the 13th film iteration of the series is slated to hit theaters on March 13, 2015.

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