Part II: The Announcement During the 4th quarter of 1999, Anchor Bay Entertainment announced "Sleepaway Camp" as a title they had acquired and intended to release on DVD. After Hayes tracked down Rose and Hiltzik in early 2000, he got in touch with the studio to see if they were interested in putting some bonus features on the dvd. Although they didn't plan to add anything to the disc except for the movie, the news of Hayes tracking down reclusive writer/director Robert Hiltzik interested Anchor Bay's William Lustig. Lustig called Hayes and let him know that they were going into production with the discs very shortly, but said that if Hayes could somehow arrange a commentary with Hiltzik within a week, that would leave just enough time to make the cut. He asked Hayes to write-up a proposal for the commentary project and gave him a 1 week deadline to arrange it and get it recorded. In the proposal, Hayes indicated that he would like to get Rose and Tiersten to appear on the track as well. Lustig agreed but the short amount of time left made it impossible for Anchor Bay to set up accommodations for Tiersten to come in to NY from Colorado.

On April 3, 2000, Hayes met with Anchor Bay's sound recordist at the hotel where he was staying and took him over to Rose's apartment where they would record the commentary. Just as exciting was the fact that this would be the first time Hiltzik and Rose would see each other since they made "Sleepaway" back in 1982. Hayes caught this moment on camera and you can watch a video clip of that reunion right here. It was during the commentary that the trio leaked their intentions of making "Return To Sleepaway Camp".

Felissa Rose, Jeff Hayes, and Robert Hiltzik at the "Sleepaway Camp" DVD Commentary recording in April 2000.

Hiltzik finished the "top secret" first draft in October 2000 and sent it to Rose and Hayes. The news of the script was announced on the website that Halloween. Shortly after interviews with Tiersten, Rose, and others launched on the website, Hayes was contacted by another cast member, Tom Van Dell (who played "Mike").

Van Dell was amazed at the response to the website and the way it revitalized the franchise that had been thought "dead" since the late 80's. Furthermore, all the hype in the interviews about the prospect of a new sequel really peaked his interest and he told Hayes that he would possibly like to get involved in it as a producer. Hayes got together a meeting between Van Dell and Hiltzik. Van Dell and Hiltzik met to discuss the project shortly thereafter and Van Dell came on board as Executive Producer, helping to raise financing for the proposed project. Hiltzik and Van Dell began meeting with prospective investors. Armed with a stack of hot curling irons, they convinced some financers to invest in the movie.