A Nightmare on Elm Street (New Line Cinema Remake)

One, two Freddy’s coming for you. Three, four a remake’s in store. In an effort to ensure that audiences never sleep again, New Line Cinema is moving forward with a remake/reboot of the iconic horror franchise NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. Plans are to scrap the lackluster 2010 reboot and start with a fresh new take.

Plot details are kept under lock and key, though fans can safely assume that the red-and-green sweater/fedora wearing Freddy Krueger will once again be up to his old tricks, ready to terrorize a new group of sleep-deprived youngsters. There’s no producer on board yet, but Orphan scribe David Leslie Johnson has been tapped to script. Toby Emmerich, Walter Hamada, and Dave Neustadter will oversee for New Line.

Ever since Wes Craven’s 1984 classic A Nightmare on Elm Street gave birth to horror icon Freddy Krueger, the franchise has become a cultural phenomenon and established its place alongside slasher faves like Halloween and Friday The 13th. Spanning nine films in total, including a remake and crossover Freddy Vs. Jason, the series has also spun-off into other media, generating over twelve novels, multiple comic books, several video games, and even a television series.

In 2010, Michael Bay and Platinum Dunes produced a remake with New Line, which served as an intended reboot of the series. That outing, which starred Rooney Mara and Jackie Earle Haley, was tarnished by critics and met with general disdain from fans of the franchise. I’m hearing that the studio’s now going back to the drawing board, working to create a remake worthy of the original. New Line, often called “the house that Freddy built,” owes a great deal to the series, as the first film’s success kicked off the growth of the then small distributor.

Johnson, who just earlier this week was announced to write Warner Bros. Dungeons And Dragons adaptation, fits the series like a glove with razors, as the former Walking Dead writer is forging a new presence in the horror space. The Wrath of The Titans scribe is next penning James Wan’s Conjuring sequel The Conjuring: The Enfield Poltergeist and Disney’s horror Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Nightmare on Elm Street is just the latest epochal horror series to get a face lift, as a new Friday The 13th, Halloween, and Texas Chainsaw are on the way. Marcus Dunstan is helming Dimension’s Halloween Returns, Hannibal’s Nick Antosca is writing the Friday The 13th sequel, and a Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel focusing on Leatherface is already fully cast. New Line moving forward with Elm Street fits the trend of studios revisiting their slasher classics with the intention of returning them to their former glory, and will, hopefully, save fans from getting burned yet again.