rights for the character. Casting In 1999, Robert Englund officially signed onto the film, marking his eighth appearance as the character of Freddy Krueger. In August 2002, Entertainment Weekly revealed Kelly Rowland and Brad Renfro were cast in the film, while Kane Hodder would reprise his role as Jason Voorhees. However, conflicting reports emerged with IGN stating that the film was looking to reinvent the character, thus ditching Hodder. Monica Keena was selected to portray the film's lead after an "extensive search", while the supporting cast were made up of Canadian actors, including Katharine Isabelle, Lochlyn Munro, Brendan Fletcher, Tom Butler, David Kopp, Jesse Hutch, Kyle Labine and Zack Ward. Betsy Palmer was courted to reprise her role as Pamela Voorhees from Friday the 13th, but declined due to salary disputes. Actress Paula Shaw would assume the role from Palmer. Just one week before production commenced, Jason Ritter was cast in place of Renfro. Casting Jason New Line, thinking that Freddy vs. Jason needed a fresh start, chose a different actor to play Jason. Cunningham disagreed with their decision, believing that Kane Hodder, who had played Jason in the previous four films, was the best choice for the role. Although Hodder received a script for Freddy vs. Jason and met with director Ronny Yu and New Line executives, Yu and Matthew Barry felt that the role should be recast to fit Yu's image of Jason. Hodder said that New Line did not give him a reason for the recasting; according to Yu, however, he wanted a taller, slower and more-deliberate Jason. The role went to Ken Kirzinger, a Canadian stuntman who worked on Jason Takes Manhattan. Yu said that Kirzinger was hired because he was taller than Robert Englund, who played Freddy Krueger. Kirzinger is tall, compared to the Hodder, and Yu wanted a much taller actor than the Englund. Kirzinger believed that his experience on Part VIII (doubling for Hodder in two scenes) and his height helped him land the part. New Line did not cast Kirzinger until they saw him on film, and his first scene was Jason walking down Elm Street. Douglas Tait played Jason in a re-shot ending: Filming Filming for Freddy vs. Jason began on September 9, 2002 in Vancouver and ended on December 10, 2002. Release The film was released on VHS and DVD as part of New Line's Platinum Series on January 13,