It was only a matter of time, but one of the all-time great horror icons, Freddy Krueger, is set to return to our screams screens to terrify a whole new (and the old) generation of horror fans.
Paramount Pictures has signed a deal with Wes Craven’s estate for the rights to writer/director Craven’s original script for A Nightmare on Elm St and they are hoping to re-launch the franchise with Paramount Primal, their new horror label. The rights were previously owned by New Line Cinema, so this is a fully new start.
It will be produced by Barbarian’s JD Lifshitz and Raphael Margules, so that should alleviate some worries.
Craven’s widow Iya Labunka, and son, Jonathan Craven, will produce the relaunch. Labunka said: “We look forward to bringing the world of Wes Craven’s Nightmare on Elm Street to a new and completely engaged generation of fans.
Tidbit:
Chuck Russell, co-writer/director of 1987’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, believes that the only man other than Robert Englund who could play Freddy Krueger is Jim Carrey. Russell directed Carrey in 1994’s The Mask.
“Jim, in my opinion, could almost do anything if he put his heart into it,” he said on Dread Central’s Development Hell podcast, “for Jim to do it, we’d have to do something that was another leap in the Elm Street series, a little bit like what Wes did with his very meta New Nightmare. I think Jim would only consider it, and I’d only consider harnessing Jim, if there was a bold new direction for Elm Street.”
“We know that Wes would have been thrilled to see how horror is taking its long overdue place in the cultural canon. We can’t wait for all of us to sit together in a dark theatre – around the campfire of today – as the next chapter of the Nightmare story unfolds.”
Lifshitz and Margules added: “We can’t remember a time before we were fans of Wes Craven. The fact that Iya and Jonathan have entrusted us with this opportunity to help usher a new story into this world is an honor beyond words. We look forward to working alongside them to bring a terrifying new nightmare to audiences everywhere, and to welcome Freddy home.”
The rights to Freddy and the franchise returned to the Craven estate, as it’s been over 35 years since 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm St redefined modern horror. The new movie, while still top secret, has been described as being “set in the world of A Nightmare on Elm Street, based on the original screenplay.”
Robert Englund says he’s done playing horror icon Freddy Kruger
Back in 2023, Robert Englund, who played Freddy from 1984 for over 20 years in several movies, a TV series and more, said that sadly, he had become too old to put on the red and black jumper, brown hat and razor glove, saying: “I’m too old and thick to play Freddy now. I just can’t do fight scenes for more than one take anymore; I’ve got a bad neck and bad back and arthritis in my right wrist. So I have to hang it up.”
In 2010, New Line tried to reboot the franchise with Jackie Earle Haley in the Freddy role, and while it’s not as bad as many would have you believe, it just didn’t capture the public’s attention the way Englund did. Capturing that again is going to be a big, big task, but there’s no question that modern horror fans have a real hunger for iconic bad guys, so maybe Freddy can really be reborn this time around.
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Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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