Paramount has set director Dan Trachtenberg’s untitled animated horror comedy based on the comic “Freddy the 13th” for a Friday the 13th release date: October 13, 2028.
The comic’s author, Yehudi Mercado, will be a co-director on the film with Trachtenberg producing alongside Ben Rosenblatt.
The film will follow Freddy VanWinkle, the clumsy black sheep of a family of overachievers who loves blogging about Halloween and slasher films. But his life is turned upside down when, while on a family vacation, he accidentally kills the Boogeyman and is cursed to take on his powers.
“I’ve spent most of my career making movies that parents probably shouldn’t show their kids,” Trachtenberg said in an Instagram post announcing the project.
“Happy to announce, along with Super Mercado Comics and Paramount, I’m finally making one…they…can…?”
Trachtenberg, who made his directorial debut with “10 Cloverfield Lane” and has directed episodes of “The Boys” and “Black Mirror,” is best known for his trilogy of “Predator” films starting with the Hulu film “Prey” in 2022 and continuing with the R-rated animated Hulu film “Predator: Killer of Killers” and the 20th Century Studios theatrical feature “Predator: Badlands” in 2025.
Trachtenberg and Mercado’s film joins a 2028 slate for Paramount that includes an adaptation of the wildly popular video game series “Call of Duty” directed by Peter Berg with Taylor Sheridan as co-writer, along with a new take on “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and a “Sonic the Hedgehog” film, both from producer Neal Moritz.