Dan Trachtenberg is developing Freddy the 13th at Paramount, and the pitch is deliberately off-brand for a filmmaker whose recent work has lived on the harder edge. He wrote on Instagram that he has spent most of his career making movies that parents probably shouldn’t show their kids.
He also said, “Happy to announce, along with @supermercadocomics and @paramountpics I’m finally making one…they…can…?” The project is based on a graphic horror novel about Freddy Vanwinkle, a hapless 13th-born son who seems to fails at everything he does.
Annecy brings the project out
Paramount Animation unveiled the film at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France, placing the project in front of the animation business at the exact moment it starts taking shape. That gives the studio a public signal that the movie is not just in development, but part of the company’s wider push to build out its animation slate under Jennifer Dodge.
Trachtenberg is producing with Ben Rosenblatt, while Yehudi Mercado is co-directing after authoring the graphic novel. The setup matters because it keeps the adaptation close to its source material while still giving Paramount Animation a filmmaker with live-action and animated franchise experience.
PG tone, horror setup
The studio says Freddy the 13th will be wholesome and PG-rated, even though the story is built on horror DNA. The plot follows a family vacation that turns into a nightmare after Uncle Freddy accidentally kills the Boogeyman and takes on his powers.
That contrast is the point of the project. Trachtenberg is moving from 10 Cloverfield Lane, Prey, and 2025’s Predator: Killer of Killers and the Predator: Badlands into a movie that is meant to be accessible to families, not just genre fans. The shift gives Paramount a title that can sit beside PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie in August while broadening what its animation label can sell.
Paramount’s animation slate
Trachtenberg recently signed a three-year first-look deal with Paramount Pictures, which makes this project feel like an early use of that relationship rather than a one-off announcement. For Paramount, the move extends a slate that also includes Survivor and The Naughty List, both part of the company’s current animation push.
The cleanest read is that Paramount wants recognizable creative names attached to animated projects with clear audience lanes. Trachtenberg’s Instagram line says the joke plainly: after years of making films parents should avoid showing kids, he is now making one they can actually watch together. Freddy the 13th becomes the test of whether that tonal pivot can travel from announcement to screen without losing the edge that made the title worth adapting in the first place.
Paramount has not set a release date or production schedule for Freddy the 13th, so the main near-term question is whether the studio moves it deeper into active production after the Annecy rollout.
