In a Fango exclusive, director Sean S. Cunningham gave the lowdown on his TRAPPED ASHES directorial stint, as well as his involvement with FRIDAY THE 13th updates (yes, that’s plural!) in the works. The FRIDAY creator, who earlier this month wrapped his “Jibaku” episode of writer/co-producer Dennis Bartok’s multidirector horror anthology ASHES, reveals how he became attached to the project: “My friend Geoff Garrett found this script which he spent several weeks trying to get me to read,” the director says. “ ’It’s got some really cool shit in it,’ he insisted. ‘Naw, doubt it,’ [I’d say]. We went back and forth like this until one day Geoff came up with the magic words: ‘Sean, it’s got vampire tits!’ I read the script that night.”
While LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM’s Ken Russell ended up helming the “vampire tits” episode (actually titled “The Girl With Golden Breasts”), Cunningham took the reins of “Jibaku,” the installment inspired by Bartok’s real-life discovery of a hanging human corpse behind a Buddhist temple in Japan. The segment lensed in the exact location of Bartok’s grisly find, and the director reveals, “Dennis was really spooked by the whole thing. Déjà vu all over again [for him]. The rest of us were too crass, insensitive and uncaring to notice,” Cunningham laughs. “We were also too damn cold!”
The “Jibaku” cast includes Aya Sugimoto and AUDITION’s Ryo Ishibashi, and the director quips, “I fell in love with my two leads, Lara Anne Harris and Scott Lowell. All right, I fell in love with Lara and liked Scott. Actually, Scott’s OK, not totally lame in all the scenes, but Lara…now there’s an actress!” He laughs, “Who could blame me for liking her more? Scott looks pretty good naked, but Lara looks so much better. Of course, that’s just me.”
As for New Line and Platinum Dunes’ forthcoming FRIDAY THE 13th “reimagining,” will be helmed by DARKNESS FALLS/TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING director Jonathan Liebesman, Cunningham says, “Not to put too fine a point on it, but I’m attached to both the FRIDAY THE 13th remake and the LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT remake, if and when they ever get off the ground. In both cases, I’ll play an executive-producer role.” He further reveals, “I’m also developing a couple of TV series, one of which, CRYSTAL LAKE CHRONICLES, I’d produce [and direct a little]. Geoff Garrett and Dan Farrands [screenwriter of HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS] created the idea.”
Intrigued by the thought of an episodic FRIDAY THE 13th-inspired TV series, Fango also spoke with Garrett, who unfortunately could reveal little. “I can’t provide any information about the project at this time,” says Garrett, who served as assistant producer on JASON X. “And believe me, I wish I could.”
“There’s a lot of other stuff out there, but it’s really talk, talk, talk,” Cunningham concludes. “It’s real when the check clears. But I’m always looking for work to support my pug habit and my online poker jones.”
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