From the trades:
With Jason poised to make his return to the big screen this weekend, Freddy Krueger may not be far behind.
Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes and New Line have hired a director for the reboot of "Nightmare on Elm Street," bringing on Samuel Bayer to direct the reimagining of the Wes Craven classic.
Bayer, for the uninitiated, is a sought-after director whose best-known work is in commercials and music videos; he's won best director at MTV's VMAs and is responsible for a host of iconic videos, including Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Blind Melon's video for "No Rain," featuring the famous girl in a bumblebee costume.
Endeavor reps Bayer, whom a number of film producers have long wanted to work with. The director is also signed on to "Fiasco Heights," a thriller Platinum Dunes is producing for Universal.
Platinum Dunes' Brad Fuller and Andrew Form are joining Bay in producing "Nightmare," which this year hits its 25th anniversary.
Unlike other reboots of classic horror franchises, which synthesize plotlines 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.
Wesley Strick, who was previously behind such chill fests as "Cape Fear" and "Arachnophobia" was previously announced to write.
Fans have been following every move of the new Krueger closely. They'll now no doubt be YouTubing plenty of music videos for clues as to what he has in mind.
Wow. A dude who directed music videos. Maybe he'll have Freddy dance like in that Will Smith video from back in the day!
