This is per THR, which reports that Trachtenberg recently announced he’d signed on for a currently untitled animated film based on Freddy The 13th, a family-friendly indie horror comic from Yehudi Mercado. The film will see Trachtenberg—who recently signed a three-year first-look deal with Paramount—working with Mercado as his co-director, in order to finally make a movie where your 10-year-old won’t ask “Mummy, why is John Goodman screaming at that lady?” or “Papa, where does this film sit in the wider Predator and Alien continuity?” (Kids, are we right?)
Despite the name, Freddy The 13th has nothing to do with either A Nightmare On Elm Street or the Friday The 13th franchise, and instead focuses on “a family vacation that takes a bad turn when lovable Uncle Freddy accidentally kills the Boogeyman and adopts his powers.” (Which kind of makes this sound like a cross between The Santa Clause and The Nightmare Before Christmas.) The film is currently aiming at a 2028 release, which will presumably give Trachtenberg time to work out all his usual “gory and tense as hell” impulses before anything actually makes it onto paper. (Unlike, say, his last animated project, 2025’s Hulu-exclusive Predator: Killer Of Killers.)
You can, if you’re so inclined, read the entirety of Freddy The 13th right now, since it’s still up and available on Mercado’s personal site. It’s a pretty cute little story, even if we’re a bit curious about how Trachtenberg and Mercado will end up stretching it to feature length. The film was originally announced by Paramount at the Annecy Film Festival last month, where the studio promised “wholesome PG-rated scares and laughs to the whole family.”
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