Elijah Wood Wants a Shot at Producing Nightmare on Elm Street Remake

Elijah Wood is best known for his on-screen work, but he’s also producing a lot of genre films like Mandy through his company with Daniel Noah, SpectreVision. And his company would like a shot at taking on a Nightmare on Elm Street remake. Wood and Noah spoke with ComingSoon.net for a new interview discussing what projects they’d like to take on, and the Elm Street franchise was among them.

“We have long fantasized having a crack at Nightmare on Elm Street,” said Noah. “So has Adam Egypt Mortimer, who we just made Daniel Isn’t Real with. That film and Elm Street have somewhat obscure but still tangible similarities of dream worlds. As people have been seeing Daniel Isn’t Real, interestingly, there’s been a little movement on Twitter for Adam Mortimer to take over Nightmare on Elm Street. We’ve made no secret. We’ve been in touch with the rights holders many times. It’s a real dream project for us to have a chance to make a film in that franchise. And like I said, we have a very specific take on it. I think it would be very surprising and exciting to remake the franchise.

Wood added, “Yeah, and it definitely has that aspect of pie in the sky, of getting to play in a certain sandbox, you know? It’s a universe and a character and an idea that would be a fun sandbox to play in. It’s trying to do something different. With a lot of these classic horror films that have seen so many sequels, eventually it sort of plays itself out a little bit. It’s also interesting to think about what could we do with a franchise like that which reinvents itself or creates something that is playing with the tone and key of the franchise, but is doing it differently or taking it in a slightly new direction. It’s a fun way to think about those things.”

It’s a good time for people who may be interested in a remake, as Wes Craven’s estate regained the domestic rights to the franchise back in September. At this point there’s no word on what the estate plans to do for the franchise, but one would expect it to be monetized in some way. The last attempt at a Nightmare on Elm Street film was 2010’s remake starring Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger, which was a success financially but largely hated by critics and fans.