{"id":491349,"date":"2026-06-23T10:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T10:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/491349\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T10:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T10:18:08","slug":"dan-trachtenberg-to-direct-animated-freddy-the-13th-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/491349\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Trachtenberg To Direct Animated Freddy The 13th Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dan Trachtenberg has spent the best part of the last half-decade in a decidedly Yautja state of mind, reinvigorating the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.empireonline.com\/movies\/features\/every-predator-movie-ranked\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Predator franchise<\/a> with 2022&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.empireonline.com\/movies\/reviews\/prey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Prey<\/a> and last year&#8217;s double-whammy of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.empireonline.com\/movies\/reviews\/predator-killer-of-killers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Predator: Killer Of Killers<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.empireonline.com\/movies\/reviews\/predator-badlands\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Predator: Badlands<\/a>. But for his next move, Trachtenberg is putting all that gory, spine-ripping goodness to one side in favour of something a little more family friendly. Per <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/film\/news\/freddy-13th-movie-paramount-1236787413\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Variety<\/a>&#8216;s reporting (and DT&#8217;s own Instagram), the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.empireonline.com\/movies\/reviews\/10-cloverfield-lane-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">10 Cloverfield Lane<\/a> helmsman is gearing up to co-direct Freddy The 13th, a Paramount Animation adaptation of Yehudi Mercado&#8217;s horror comedy graphic novel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019ve spent most of my career making movies that parents probably shouldn\u2019t show their kids,&#8221; said Trachtenberg in his social post announcing Freddy The 13th. &#8220;Happy to announce, along with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/supermercadocomics\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">@supermercadocomics<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/paramountpics\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">@paramountpics<\/a>\u00a0I\u2019m finally making one\u2026they\u2026can\u2026?&#8221; Set to be directed by Trachtenberg alongside Mercado himself, Freddy The 13th is, in essence, essentially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.empireonline.com\/movies\/reviews\/santa-clause-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Santa Clause<\/a> for the Boogeyman \u2014 and not the stealth animated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.empireonline.com\/movies\/reviews\/freddy-vs-jason-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Freddy vs. Jason<\/a> redux its title may suggest. The graphic novel sees fun-loving uncle Freddy Vanwinkle, a luckless 13th son, totally upend his family&#8217;s summer holiday when he unwittingly kills actual Boogeyman Nighty Night and finds himself newly imbued with the terror-monger&#8217;s powers. Complicating matters further is the fact that as dark forces circle to take Nighty Night&#8217;s throne, Uncle Freddy has thirteen nights of babysitting his niece and nephew to contend with.<\/p>\n<p>Outside of the likes of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.empireonline.com\/movies\/features\/paranorman-chris-butler-and-sam-fell-on-zombies-the-thrifting-and-making-a-laika-cult-classic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ParaNorman<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.empireonline.com\/movies\/reviews\/monster-house-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Monster House<\/a>, there&#8217;s been a real dearth of legitimate family friendly horror movies in recent years, with Eli Roth&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.empireonline.com\/movies\/reviews\/house-clock-walls-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The House With A Clock In Its Walls<\/a> \u2014 a film that&#8217;s now eight years old \u2014 arguably being Hollywood&#8217;s last mainstream effort to offer effective chills and thrills for all ages. Here&#8217;s hoping Dan Trachtenberg and his Baby&#8217;s First Slasher Movie effort Freddy The 13th will wind up being a real killer with kids and adults alike. Watch this space!<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dan Trachtenberg has spent the best part of the last half-decade in a decidedly Yautja state of mind,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-491349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}