What Could Have Been / Freddy vs. Jason

• The idea of a crossover film between Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street originated as far back as the early plans for Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. Due to Paramount and New Line Cinema being unable to reach an agreement as to how such a crossover should be like at the time, the final plot for The New Blood ended up being chosen.
• Peter Jackson, who had previously penned an early script for Freddy's Dead, was asked to direct shortly after its release, but turned the offer down after being dissatisfied with the producers' treatment of his script.
• Rob Zombie turned down an offer to direct due to prior commitments to House of 1000 Corpses.
• There are no less than four unused scripts floating around the Internet. Such scrapped plot elements included: Jason driving a Subaru, Jason helping the main characters, the final fight between the two taking place in a burning mall, Freddy killing a girl by turning her into a giant lobster and flash-steaming her, Jason killing a man via shotgun Ass Shove, a Freddy-worshipping cult called the Fred Heads, lizard-people living in the Dream World, Jason being bought back to life with the heart of the Final Girl's dead boyfriend (also coincidentally named Jason!), and Freddy summoning Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, and John Wayne Gacey to aid him in the fight against Jason. Said unused scripts can be read (in PDF form) here. Elements of the unused drafts were later re-used in the Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash comics.
• In one of the original endings Freddy and Jason continue their battle in hell, when suddenly a figure steps out of the shadows and separates them. Who is it? Why, none other than Pinhead, of course, who calmly asks, "What seems to be the problem, gentlemen?" The nightmare of licensing issues between New Line and Paramount were enough without bringing in yet another studio's character and thus, preventing this awesomeness.
• The character of Dr. Campbell was originally Dr. Neil Gordon from Dream Warriors.
• Originally the script called for Tommy Jarvis to return in a subplot that focused on his resentment to condos being built on Camp Crystal Lake, explaining the construction it was going under during the final fight, but was initially cut because of the abundance of Will/Lori/Lori’s Dad drama.
• One planned sequel would have brought Ash Williams into the action, but Sam Raimi ultimately nixed it - apparently just in case he ever got around to making the long-awaited fourth Evil Dead movie (the script was used to make the first comic mini-series). There was also talk of bringing Michael Myers in after that.
• As was mentioned before, Kane Hodder was to return as Jason in the movie and was excited when he was told it was finally gonna happen. Unfortunately, he was unceremoniously recast with a different stunt actor as the studio wanted to go in a different direction with the character.
• Kane Hodder has stated in an interview that C.J. Graham (the actor who played Jason in Part VI: Jason Lives) had a chance to reprise his role as Jason for this film after his agent suggested it to him. He declined the chance as he was good friends with Hodder and felt the film's producers were treating him unfairly by recasting the character.
• Betsy Palmer was asked to reprise her role of Pamela Voorhees from the first two Friday the 13th films but turned down the part after being offered a low salary. She would later say that "the scenes were dumb" anyway, which was also a factor.
• Originally, Kia's death was going to be much different. Rather than confronting Freddy in a taunting speech, it would have been her running into Jason and recreating the closing scene with Nancy from the original Nightmare film, wherein she renounces the fear and energy she gives to him and simply turns around. Only, she got the lore mixed up, and Jason naturally just stabs her in the back after Freddy would say to Kia "Wrong one bitch".
• Katharine Isabelle was originally cast as Lori but was dissatisfied with the character and asked for the role to be rewritten. When the production refused, the role was recast with Monica Keena, and the roll of Gibb was created specifically to tailor to Isabelle's requests.
• Brad Renfro was originally cast as Will but was let go after the first week of filming due to his (much publicized) substance abuse problems. Jason Ritter, who had originally been cast as Will but had been personally vetoed by Yu for being "wrong for the part", subsequently replaced Renfro in the role.
• After Brad Renfro dropped out of the film, Ian Somerhalder was considered as a replacement, but Ronny Yu felt he was "too pretty."
• Crystal Lowe and Brittany Murphy were considered for Lori Campbell.
• Kerr Smith was considered for Will Rollins.
• Bianca Lawson was considered for Kia Waterson.
• Katharine Isabelle was originally cast as Jenny, while Lauren Lee Smith was cast as Gibb. In the re-write, Jenny was eliminated, and all of her lines were given to Gibb. Eventually, Katharine Isabelle took over the part of Gibb, and Lauren Lee Smith was no longer in the film.
• Christina Ricci was the first choice for Laurie and was offered the role but turned it down to appear in Monster.
• Amber Benson was considered for Gibb Smith.
• Freddy and Jason were originally going to have a more personal history with each other. One idea included Freddy being Jason's father, which was nixed when someone remembered that Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare had already pulled that twist with the Final Girl. Another one was that Freddy was a counselor at Camp Crystal Lake when Jason drowned with the implications that Freddy may have molested Jason and that he deliberately let him drown. Another idea tossed around was that the Voorhees family originally lived in Springwood and Jason was a child targeted by Krueger but avoided death. His parents, Pamala and Elias, then led the rest of the parents into vigilante justice when Freddy avoided legal punishment. In revenge, Freddy arranged for the events that lead to Jason's apparent death after getting his dream powers.
• Across the many, many scripts or treatments, two ideas appeared in almost every single one. Freddy being responsible in one form or another for Jason becoming the way he did, and Jason finally breaking his streak as The Voiceless and saying a single line. Oddly enough, despite these two ideas appearing the most constantly even across wildly different treatments, they never showed up in the final film.
• The original opening, which is available on the web, is considerably different from the final version.
  • This opening would begin with the narration of a child rather than Freddy, explaining how Freddy gained the powers to enter children's dreams and how humans managed to find a way to defeat him.
  • The girl killed by Freddy begs for her life before she is murdered.
  • Freddy's murder scene is longer. We can see Freddy cornered by the flames and screaming in despair as he dies. The sheriff of the movie is also seen among the crowd.
  • The montage includes more scenes from the franchise's previous films, although interestingly most of it is from part 1 and 2.
  • After the montage is over, Freddy shows up to explain his plan involving Jason. At this moment it shows a scene of Freddy's glove coming out of the ground to get Jason's mask, confirming once and for all that the events of this movie are set after the events of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday.
  • The opening ends with Freddy resurrecting Jason's buried body, and then cuts to Jason by walking across Crystal Lake.

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