Freddy Gets a New Director

Freddy Krueger has been put on the fast-track.

New Line and Platinum Dunes have tapped director Samuel Bayer for the proposed reboot of the “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise.  Bayer will also work on fleshing out the script for the film and reports indicate that production on the film could begin this spring. 

Helming the “Nightmare” relaunch will be Bayer’s movie-directing debut.  Bayer is an experienced director for music videos, including Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”  He has won the MTV Music Award as best director in the past.

Bayer has been pursued by Platinum Dunes in the past for other projects, but turned them down.  Now he steps into some big shoes as he tries to rekindle one of the definitive horror franchises of the 80’s.

Unlike other reboots of classic horror franchises that synthesize plot lines from several films, this one, insiders said, will feature a strong element of the first picture, in which Krueger famously began haunting teenagers’ dreams, attacking them violently in their subconscious in ways that resulted in their real-life deaths.

And while we don’t know any casting details yet, we do know that Robert Englund, who brought Freddy originally will not reprise his role.