Mark Swift And Damien Shannon Speak

Give this interview a read. Friday reboot writers Mark Swift And Damien Shannon discuss their screenplay work on the flick, things that were cut even before filming, references to the other flicks, and even candid thoughts on their Freddy Vs Jason. It’s five static pages long, and a pretty smooth (and funny) read.

Crave Online: What was your interaction with the other credited writer?

Damian Shannon: You know what? We’ve never met him and we did not actually read his draft until the arbitration.

Mark Swift: Until the movie was done.

Crave Online: What similarities were there?

Mark Swift: I think in his, Jason finds a mask. I’m not trying to downtalk him. Jason finds a mask and teenagers die. I think that he had an idea that we also had which was that there’s tunnels.

Damian Shannon: And a couple other similarities.

Mark Swift: Jason’s real pissed off. He’s got a machete.

Damian Shannon: It’s in the woods. There’s teens.

Crave Online: What did you learn from doing Freddy Vs. Jason for doing a full blown Jason movie?

Mark Swift: We learned a lot.

Damian Shannon: Absolutely. One of the biggest things we learned was tonality, the sort of intermingling of comedy and horror and how best to do that. We don’t think that worked perfectly in Freddy Vs. Jason.

Source: Crave Online

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22 Responses to “ Mark Swift And Damien Shannon Speak ”

  1. A recommended read.

    Although it wasn’t used due to budget restraints (Who would thought a deer carcass @ 100k), I think the idea of the deer carcass in the lair would have been a nice touch. Jason has got to eat sometime. A fake carcass should have been used

  2. These guys scream attitude. I’m not sure I like them.

  3. They’re actually pretty cool, good at getting to the point. They were in His Name Was Jason I’d say they’re a pretty funny pair.

  4. Good read but no info on them coming back for the sequel.

  5. I really dig those guys. Great interview.

  6. Haha, thanks for the read, John. Twas a good one. I am not the world’s biggest Freddy Vs. Jason as the final film version fanatic out there, but I did enjoy the remake for what it is (a solid franchise re-starter with some tits & blood and playfulyl obnoxious modern characters and a damn fine human Jason for a change, so yeah: fair enough by Friday standards), but I thought these guys were very entertaining in the His Name Was Jason documentary, and this again was a fine read.

    Merci becoupe …

  7. I can’t stand these guys. I still can’t believe their Freddy Vs Jason script saw the light of day.

  8. They sure seem to come across as cocky douchebags.

  9. yeah idk what it is about these guys just dont care 4 em

  10. I wonder which kill they were talking about, that was supposed to be more extravagant?

  11. I wonder what it is about these guys that keeps the execs coming back? FvJ was a descent movie but as we all know was a little off. Then they trust them with the new movie and damn, what can I say. It wasnt bad but wasnt good either. Just a little in between. Hopefully their days of working on Friday films are over. It worries me though, they are behind the new Nightmare on elm street movie arent they? Im sure they will destroy that movie as well.

  12. With alot of films there’s alot of fighting over creative control so writers, directors, and producers are always bumping heads. It’s really a collaborative effort and difficult to get one persons version of the story on film as they see it. These guys tried to give their explanation as to why they were not responsible for the Jason fears water thing in FvJ in the His Name Was Jason (Yeah I love that dvd too).

    Similar to the goofy resurrection of Tina’s father in pt. 7. Where her father just looked as if he had mud on his face instead of looking like a rotted corpse or something scarier. I hope since the new movie did well they’ll have a bigger budget that can maybe open more options. I know a huge budget doesn’t make a great movie but it does open possibilities that may of been shut down before.

  13. Worthless writers. Couldn’t get FvJ or F13th09 right, badly written and the wrong tone.

  14. “Another thing we learned is there’s nothing more painful in horror movies than having kids explain plot…”

    So, didn’t read a scriptwritingbook or taking some scriptwritingclasses before getting the FvJ gig I guess? Haha, it’s laughable.

  15. Why the hell did they let the guys that did Freddy Vs Jason anywhere near the remake?

  16. they’re terrible writers. many f13ths have bad dialogue but i absolutely hated some of the lines in this movie.

    and yeah, they’re very cocky bastards. insulting someone else’s script when theirs isn’t worth a shit… they sound to me like the typical people that insult any f13th movie because ‘teenager’s die’ and ‘he’s got a machete’. sure every f13th looks like that to an outsider, but to those of us who are actual fans, we see a lot more to it than that.

    fvj is one of the worst movies ever made. these guys should have been banned from horror after it. the new movie isn’t terrible, but i’m sure there are a billion writers in hollywood that could have made it great…and it deserved to be great. it’s jason’s freaking return after all these years, and i can’t help but feel disappointed.

  17. “you have perfect nipple placement”….yeah, thats good writing!! I thought the film was gonna jump off the reel at that moment

  18. I totally agree with tommyblah. I for one didn\’t like Freddy vs. Jason not one bit. I was so disappointed, that once the movie was over, I had no words. Not only was the plot terrible and the dialogue ridiculous, but the cast just made it even worse. Talk about bad casting and horrible acting. And last but not least, the showdown. OMG! They seriously made a big joke of Freddy & Jason, in my opinion of course. Damian & Mark did improve a bit in Friday the 13th, but not enough. If Ronny Yu would have directed Friday the 13th, it would have been another Freddy vs. Jason and another failure in my eyes. Thank God Marcus Nispel and Platinum Dunes were involved. The casting was great, acting was top notch, but I needed to see more emotions from these characters. Just like Whitney\’s character. She was the best and really showed how scared she was, very real. They seriously need to write a brutal, intense, gory, scary, emotion-filled sequel. And please do not have marijuana again. Great movie and can’t wait for the sequel.

  19. These guys are a couple of D-BAGS. They talk like what they wrote for FvsJ was scrapped and turned into something else. I don’t like thier cockyness. They are unknown assclowns that have in my and many other peoples eyes fucked up a great chance at making something brilliant. Go back to writing school you fucks! I didn’t like FvsJ because of the mockery it turned out to be. I didn’t like the over the top comic book style fights between Freddy and Jason… and they keep on bitching about thier original fight scene with Freddy and Jason in hell fighting with a cameo by Pinhead… are you serious? That shows right there that they have no real respect for the characters and just wanted to make something. Good or bad just something… and they did it again with the new Friday the 13th. That movie for what it is worth is okay to watch not that good and really not the worst either {part 5,8,JGTH,FvsJ) but it just didn’t feel like i was watching a Friday the 13th. Please new line don’t get these two to write the sequel!!!!!!!!

  20. I don’t understand how these guys make a living writing movies…I mean…really?

    These are brain children?

  21. I’m with the goat on this one.These guys are a couple of wannabe’s and should stay away from horror in general.Having said that it’s a pity they are not on board for the NOES reboot as i’d enjoy watching the panto villian that is Freddy being royally screwed by this couple of chancers.

  22. yeah they fucked jason separately. it’s only fair they fuck freddy in his reboot.

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