In 2010, a day arrived that a lot of horror fans had been dreading for a while: the release date of a remake of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. For many, it was a tough remake to take from the moment it was announced because they didn't want to see Robert Englund replaced in the role of dream stalker Freddy Krueger; Englund had been with the franchise since the beginning and had put much of his own quirky essence into the character. The filmmakers made the promising choice of casting Jackie Earle Haley in the role… and then, unfortunately, didn't give Haley much to work with.
A remake of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is something most fans didn't want at all, but they could have been won over by a great movie. Instead, they got a poorly put together, very uninspired one. The Arrow gave the original ELM STREET a 10/10 rating in his review. The remake only got a 5/10 from him. That's not how anyone wants a remake to measure up to a beloved original.
Warner Bros. / New Line Cinema whiffed it on their first attempt at rebooting the ELM STREET franchise, but about two years ago we heard they were considering giving it another try. Screenwriter David Leslie Johnson, the ORPHAN scribe who had been working with the studio on THE CONJURING 2 at the time, was hired to write a fresh reboot that would be overseen by producers Toby Emmerich, Walter Hamada, and Dave Neustadter. It was said that this one would be aiming to be "a remake worthy of the original".
And that's all we heard about this ELM STREET reboot plan. Johnson was recently hired to write the script for THE CONJURING 3, and after two years of silence regarding the new ELM STREET things have been stirred up again, as some CONJURING 3 reports mentioned that Johnson had written a NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET reboot.
So what is the status of this reboot? We've heard nothing since August of 2015, so it would be easy to assume that it was dead on arrival, but that may not be the case. Our pals over at Bloody-Disgusting have confirmed that
the David Leslie Johnson-penned A Nightmare On Elm Street reboot is very much still in the works.
It's not a top priority now, as the studio is currently focusing on IT and the endeavor of building their own CONJURING Universe with the CONJURING films and their spin-offs ANNABELLE, ANNABELLE: CREATION, THE NUN, and THE CROOKED MAN… But it's not dead. (And no, that plot synopsis on IMDb is not real.)
I'm sure they'll get around to this one someday, but it's good that they're not rushing into it. They need to take their time and get it right, they can't make another ELM STREET reboot that bombs as badly with fans as the 2010 film did.