We promise you’ll never want to fall asleep again after this news. Paramount Pictures – via THR – has reportedly inked a new deal to resurrect horror icon Freddy Krueger for a brand new movie. The studio is reported to have a struck a deal for U.S. distribution rights to the screenplay for the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, written and directed by Wes Craven.
Any new release is expected to hail from Paramount’s newly announced genre label, Paramount Primal, which is being masterminded by J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules, the producers behind the studios hits Friendship and Zach Kregger’s Barbarian.
As per THR, New Line Cinema and owners Warner Bros. previously held the rights to all Nightmare on Elm Street movies back to 1984. The original film was followed by seven sequels plus TV series, comics and merchandising empire. Following the 35 year clause in US Copyright law the rights were regained by the Craven estate including his widow Iya Labunka and son Jonathan Craven.
“We look forward to bringing the world of Wes Craven’s Nightmare on Elm Streetto a new and completely engaged generation of fans,” said Labunka in a statement to THR. “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.”
“We can’t remember a time before we were fans of Wes Craven. 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” added Lifshitz and Margules.
The story centres on Krueger, a child killer who was burned alive by the kids’ parents but years later returns via dreams, in his now-iconic look of a fedora, red and green sweater, as well as burnt face and razor glove, to kill teenagers.
