Caffeinated Clint
Good news for fans of one of horror’s most distinctive franchises with the “A Nightmare on Elm Street” brand soon returning to the multiplex.
According to The Tracking Board, New Line are set to reboot – for a second time – their earliest hit, ostensibly distancing said project from the 2010 film starring Jackie Earle Haley as the long-nailed dream spite.
Unfortunately, that also suggests that the original and most popular Fred ‘Freddy’ Krueger, Robert Englund, will also likely be sitting it out as the studio searches for a new actor to fill the Christmas jumper and don the glove.
The most recent “Elm Street” film, which received both lukewarm reviews and did little at the box office, was produced by Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes company. By all accounts, Platinum Dunes aren’t involved in the new film.
David Leslie Johnson, whose credits include “Orphan” and the upcoming sequel to “The Conjuring”, is apparently writing the script for the new film. Toby Emmerich, Walter Hamada, and Dave Neustadter will produce.
Fans will likely have a mixed response to the news. Sure, they’re probably happy that a sequel to the uninspired 2010 remake isn’t going ahead, but they’d probably prefer to see Englund don the glove again in a new sequel to the original films (or even the prequel project that John McNaughton wrote). Englund told Moviehole a couple of years back that, had New Line not decided to redo the series and cast Haley in the part of Krueger, he’d have been quite enthused to play Freddy a couple more times.
“I could’ve probably done another Freddy or two, but I think that’s when Platinum Dunes acquired the rights along with Warner Brothers from Newline Cinema. Their idea was to reboot the franchise and go with somebody younger who could play, could be the same Freddy for years” Englund said. “I’m almost – even now, I’m almost too old to go out there and do the stunts and stuff. I can do a couple of takes, but then I wake up the next morning and feel like I’ve been playing football. I can barely get out of bed, so I’m having a lot more fun now doing these “suit and tie” roles.”
Even if he did decide he could handle it, would New Line be keen to go back to the original star and series and pick up where they left off? Doubtful.
Listen to Freddy Krueger’s special message for Moviehole readers here.
