16 years after the last film, A Nightmare on Elm Street fans finally have something new to look forward to. The iconic slasher franchise has been a pop culture icon for more than four decades, with the most recent installment released in 2010.
What is the new A Nightmare on Elm Street update?
Paramount has acquired the U.S. rights to the original screenplay for the late Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (via The Hollywood Reporter). The studio is developing a new film that will revive Freddy Krueger for a new generation under its Paramount Primal label. It remains unclear whether the project will be a sequel or a reboot, as those details are being kept under wraps.
The film’s U.S. rights are being licensed by the Craven estate, which includes Iya Labunka, Craven’s widow, and their son, Jonathan Craven. The estate regained the rights to the original screenplay after its copyright terminated in 2019. New Line Cinema, which distributed the original films, will retain the franchise’s international rights.
“We look forward to bringing the world of Wes Craven’s Nightmare on Elm Street to a new and completely engaged generation of fans,” Labunka said in a statement. “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.”
The new Nightmare on Elm Street film will be produced by Labunka, Jonathan, and Marc Toberoff. J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules of Paramount Primal will serve as executive producers.
The Nightmare on Elm Street franchise spans nine films, a TV series, several novels, comic books, video games, and other media. It has also crossed over with the Friday the 13th franchise, pitting Krueger against Jason Voorhees. The announcement of the new Krueger film comes just days after the confirmation of new Friday the 13th films being in development.
