The screenplay emerged from an unusually concealed and legally awkward collaboration. Director Joseph Zito initially said he was not a writer, but accepted the job after the contract offered him additional money for writing as well as directing. Rather than openly writing the script himself, he secretly used part of that extra salary to hire Barney Cohen. Zito held nightly one-hour telephone conversations with producer Phil Scuderi, discussing story ideas and set pieces. He would then meet Cohen in a New York apartment, where they transformed Scuderi's suggestions into screenplay pages and sent them to Scuderi in Boston for another round of telephone revisions. Cohen received the writing credit, but the arrangement eventually caused trouble with the Writers Guild of America. The behind-the-scenes authorship dispute is especially fitting for a film whose plot centers on hidden identities and a carefully staged final confrontation: even the script's creation involved concealed labor, divided credit, and contractual maneuvering.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1980s
The Secret New York Script Machine Behind Jason's 'Final' Kill
Joseph Zito, Barney Cohen, and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter / 1980s
The screenplay emerged from an unusually concealed and legally awkward collaboration. Director Joseph Zito initially said he was not a writer, but accepted the job after the contract offered him additional money for writing as well as directing. Rather than openly writing the script himself, he secretly used part of that extra salary to hire Barney Cohen. Zito held nightly one-hour telephone conversations with producer Phil Scuderi, discussing story ideas and set pieces. He would then meet Cohen in a New York apartment, where they transformed Scuderi's suggestions into screenplay pages and sent them to Scuderi in Boston for another round of telephone revisions. Cohen received the writing credit, but the arrangement eventually caused trouble with the Writers Guild of America. The behind-the-scenes authorship dispute is especially fitting for a film whose plot centers on hidden identities and a carefully staged final confrontation: even the script's creation involved concealed labor, divided credit, and contractual maneuvering.
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