A new deal has been inked to reboot the classic horror franchise A Nightmare on Elm Street… again.
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Paramount Pictures has snagged the U.S. rights to Wes Craven’s iconic screenplay, per The Hollywood Reporter. Of course, the original 1984 film launched Johnny Depp’s career and made everyone afraid to fall asleep. For the uninitiated, Freddy Krueger (the legendary Robert Englund) is a knife-fingered serial killer who hunts teenagers in their dreams, where dying is very much permanent.
The new A Nightmare on Elm Street will be produced under Paramount’s new genre label, Paramount Primal. The film will be led by J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules, the producers behind the horror hit Barbarian.
The rights come straight from the Craven family (widow Iya Labunka and son Jonathan Craven). They are teaming up with copyright-specialist-turned-producer Marc Toberoff to keep it all in the family.
The Craven family is ready to usher Freddy into a new era, with Labunka declaring they “can’t wait” to gather audiences in “the dark theatre – around the campfire of today.” In other words, Freddy’s coming for a whole new generation of sleep-deprived fans.
“We can’t remember a time before we were fans of Wes Craven,” Lifshitz and Margules added. “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 New A Nightmare on Elm Street Reboot Might Face a Major Hurdle With Fans…
The A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise clocked in eight films. The 2003 crossover Freddy vs. Jason takes the crown as the highest-grossing installment with $116.6M. The 2010 reboot (yes, they tried this already) starring Rooney Mara and a Freddy-without-Englund courtesy of Jackie Earl Haley came in a close second at $115.6M. Since then, Freddy’s been catching some well-deserved shut-eye.
The real nightmare is trying to reboot a franchise without the man who made Freddy iconic. Without Englund under that fedora, this reboot may find itself in a real nightmare… one it can’t wake up from.