Jackie Earle Haley Negotiating to Play Freddy Krueger

If you're going to give movie audiences a new spin on a classic character, you better make sure you get it right. It won't matter how much money you dump into advertising if you get that one thing wrong. In the horror genre, the only character that truly matters in that regard is Freddy Krueger. You can put anyone behind the mask of Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees. But Krueger has to be the right guy. And New Line Cinema is reportedly in negotiations with the right guy, Watchmen star and Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley, to resurrect the man in the fedora for the new Nightmare on Elm Street. Haley seemed interested in the idea earlier in the year, and now Bloody Disgusting has learned that he is in final talks to take over the role from Robert Englund, and I think you'll agree that it gives he film enough of an edge that now I'm curious to see what they can do with it. The big hurdle is that Platinum Dunes, the production company responsible for most of these horror remakes, wants to change Krueger's origin story so that he might not be the exact same form of evil he was in the original. And there's the decision to not do an origin story, which given Haley's ability and the evidence from Little Children that he could play a harrowing child molester, and I have a feeling that might backfire. I just think that's the part of this story that needs to be told right now. The reboot will be in theaters next April, and begins production at the end of the month in Chicago.

Comments

[Erica]

Why-oh-why isn't Robert Englund carrying on the role?? He's not THAT old!

[Bob]

Ooooooh. Good, good choice - I really only know him from his role in Little Children, but this works for me. If any character needed a reboot - it's Freddy Krueger. Sounds like they might be on the right track with this one.

Thank god it isn't going to be Micheal Rosenbaum (he of Smallville and Sorority Girls fame) as was once rumored.