I had no clue about this but Elijah Wood, best known for portraying Frodo Baggins in The Lord of The Rings trilogy, is a huge horror movie fan. The actor had produced and starred in many dark and scary movies with SpectreVision and he's currently waiting for his new film No Man of God to make its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. Promotion for this particular project is what sparked a conversation about his desire to bring Freddy Krueger back into our nightmares with another reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street and he also expressed a desire to take on Stephen King's Children of The Corn.
Wood spoke with "ComicBook.com" and he had this to say about his push to remake either of those films:
"We personally have talked a lot about, internally, Elm Street and how incredible it would be to play in that universe again and see that universe, to see Freddy [Krueger] and just that concept be explored again. That's something that we're fascinated in. Obviously, that is not a lesser-known, smaller thing that should be remade into a big one. But another one that I feel is exciting, I know that there's already a remake coming out, but we still really love Children of the Corn. I feel like that would be an exciting thing to … from the ground up, taking it from the novel, not remaking the movie, but actually take the short story and flesh that out in an interesting way."
A Nightmare on Elm Street already got a poorly received remake back in 2010 and I suspect that whatever idea Wood has for another reboot would have to be better than that final product. The A Nightmare on Elm Street legacy began with Wes Craven's classic back in 1984 and that went on to spawn seven official sequels, a TV series, and the aforementioned reboot. Stephen King's Children of The Corn, originally a short story in his "Night Shift" collection, has been the basis for 11 movies in all, with most of them getting mediocre reviews.
Wood also went on to discuss his love for more obscure horror films and he wishes that other people were as passionate about them as he is. The actor went on to say "One of my favorite movies, and not something I necessarily want to remake, but one of my favorite movies that was direct to VHS during the great direct to VHS horror explosion of the 1980s, there's a movie called 'Truth or Dare?: A Critical Madness' by Tim Ritter. I think it sticks out in my mind because I saw it when I was six and it just left an impression on me. But, I genuinely love it. And I've introduced it to so many people and it has its fans. It is not that obscure, but I don't know that I'd want to remake it. When I think about these lesser-known movies, that one always really sticks out as a special little gem."
Wood's love for the horror genre is pretty great to see and maybe he could be the guy that gives us a fresh take on A Nightmare on Elm Street or Children of the Corn. Like I said, odds are that it's likely to be better than some of the offshoots we've already received.
Would YOU want to see Elijah Wood reboot A Nightmare on Elm Street or Children of the Corn?