A ‘Cheech and Chong vs Jason’ Movie was Briefly Considered and Quickly Rejected

Man, can you imagine all of the movie ideas that have briefly existed only to be shot down in a pitch meeting?  For as many terrible ideas there are out there, I’m sure more than a few good ones died on the vine before they even had a chance.  Take, for example, Cheech and Chong vs Jason from ‘Friday the 13th.’

/Film originally reported on an interview done on Post Mortem with director Tom McLoughlin where he spoke about the ‘Friday the 13th’ series. McLoughlin, for those not in the know, directed ‘Friday the 13th: Jason Lives’ and was asked by producer Frank Mancuso Jr. if he had a pitch for a potential sequel.  According to McLoughlin, Mancuso attempted to pitch him on an idea for a  “Freddy vs Jason” movie, an idea that was seventeen years ahead of it’s time.  Unfortunately, McLoughlin just couldn’t wrap his mind around it at the time.

 I started thinking about that, going, It doesn’t make sense. I mean he lives in one realm and — you know, I take this stuff very seriously, what realm a monster’s supposed to stay in. And he came back, he goes, ‘Eh, forget it, it’s not going to work anyway.’

DAMN! Could you imagine?  If they had managed to negotiate that deal they would have gotten a Freddy vs Jason movie at the height of their popularity.  Ah well, doesn’t mean the movie would have been any better than the one we got… but I bet it definitely would have had Kane Hodder in the Jason role.

So what was the idea that McLoughlin had?  Well, it was a bit off the beaten path.  At the time Paramount was making Cheech and Chong films so he pitched an idea where the iconic duo would meet an iconic killer.

I said, ‘You know what? You guys own Cheech and Chong. What if we do Cheech and Chong-meets-Jason? They’re like camp counselors or something. It’s like, ‘Hey, man, I saw Jason out there.’ ‘No, man, that’s a myth.’ But he said, ‘You know what? No.’

Probably for the best that producer Mancuso had shot that idea down, but I can’t deny that I would love to have a Cheech and Chong vs Jason movie sitting on my DVD shelf right now, even if it was terrible.  It would fit right in line with the classics like “Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein.” Hell, at one point Jay and Silent Bob almost met Pinhead from Hellraiser.  Comedy and horror are great bedfellows, so it’s not entirely strange to see these ideas pitched around.  It’s just that the idea of shoehorning one established franchise into another may be off putting to fans.  Still, it’d be nice to see someone give it another try one day.