After waiting sixteen long years, Freddy Krueger will soon stalk the dreams of unsuspecting Springwood teens once again. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount has won the rights from Wes Craven’s estate for a new A Nightmare on Elm Street installment. They will soon begin work on a new film. This new movie will be “set in the world of A Nightmare on Elm Street, based on the original screenplay.” In Hollywood speak, Paramount won the rights to Craven’s original script and nothing else. So no elements introduced in the seven sequels or the remake can appear in the new version. Wes Craven’s widow, Iya Labunka, and Craven’s son Jonathan Craven, are producers.
Here’s What We Know About the New A Nightmare on Elm Street Movie
In a statement, Craven’s widow, Iya Labunka, said the following about the new A Nightmare on Elm Street movie:
We look forward to bringing the world of Wes Craven’s Nightmare on Elm Street to a new and completely engaged generation of fans. 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.
The last Nightmare film was the remake, which starred Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy. It came at the tail end of the 2000s remake boom in horror classics, and made decent money. But critics panned it, and at the time, fans turned on any version of Freddy that wasn’t Robert Englund. Many cite the 2010 remake as the end of that cycle. Afterward, Halloween, Scream, Child’s Play, and others received legacy sequels, while the A Nightmare on Elm Street rights were in litigation. Now it seems Freddy can finally return to his proper place on the slasher throne.
This new A Nightmare on Elm Street movie will be part of a new Paramount label for their horror franchises, called Paramount Primal. This will be the first A Nightmare on Elm Street film not released by New Line Cinema, which began the franchise in 1984. However, Paramount is in the process of merging with Warner Bros., so if the merger goes through, we may see the New Line logo on the film after all. For years, Blumhouse’s Jason Blum expressed his desire to acquire Freddy for his company. But it looks like Paramount outbid Blumhouse.
Nerdist Take: We’re Excited About a New Nightmare on Elm Street Movie
Big questions remain, however. Will this be an all-new story based on elements in Craven’s original script? Or just a shot-for-shot remake of the first A Nightmare on Elm Street? And will Robert Englund have any kind of role in this? One of the big issues fans had with the 2010 version was that Englund had no involvement. Also, it wasn’t very good, that didn’t help either. But we can’t help but feel some excitement. We wait with bated breath for Freddy Krueger to swipe his metal claws against the boiler room pipes once again. New A Nightmare on Elm Street here we come.