If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But if a popular franchise reboot doesn’t do as well as you’d hope, you reboot it again. That’s how the saying goes, right?…
Tracking Board is reporting that New Line Cinema has decided on a mulligan for the long-running Freddy Krueger franchise, with plans to forget all about the head-smackingly generic, critically and fan-hated Michael Bay-produced 2010 reboot – the only remotely good thing about that one was Jackie Earle Haley’s pretty creepy performance as Freddy – and start afresh. This follows announcements for new versions of Friday the 13th, Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
No director or full producer is attached yet but the studio has tapped David Leslie Johnson to write the script. He wrote the darkly fun horror-thriller Orphan, a few episodes of The Walking Dead and did re-writes on the upcoming The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist. On the flip side, and rather alarmingly, he wrote the truly awful Red Riding Hood and lacklustre Wrath of the Titans.
What began as a fresh, fascinating horror creation way back in 1984 has since spawned a whopping eight further films, including the aforementioned 2010 redo and an entertaining cross-over film in Freddy vs. Jason. Needless to say when you get to the point of that many films, finding ways to make the concept feel new and interesting is a hard thing.
Hopefully by them starting with a blank slate save for the basic, cast-iron attributes that make the series/character what it is – the glove, the sweater and, of course, that Freddy kills his victims while they’re asleep – means they can truly breathe new life into the franchise. Now just who the hell do they cast?!…
Source: Tracking Board