Another Nightmare in the Making
Posted 05.05.10 by Ryan
After getting skewered by the critics, the Nightmare on Elm Street remake opened to $32.2 million at the box office last weekend, the biggest weekend ever for a horror movie in April or May, and good enough for Warner Brothers and New Line to order a sequel.
According to The Wrap, details on an Elm Street sequel aren't worked out yet, but Warners distribution president Dan Fellman says the studio is definitely interested in making one.
We don't have a story yet, but this is the largest horror opening in the April-May corridor, and it just proves there's a lot left in the franchise.
If Warners is in need of some ideas, they just need to ask Elm Street co-screenwriter Eric Heisserer, who told iF Magazine that he had a "a binder full of ideas that grew twice its size during the shooting" of the remake.
Even now, we know so little about Krueger. We know he showed up, he was a groundskeeper at this pre-school and he had a fondness for these kids. We don't know where he came from, we don't know what this situation is and why he became a pedophile. There's a lot of stuff. Plenty of things to expand on in terms of mythology.
The Wrap stated that the sequel would be shot in 3-D, which is becoming almost standard for genre movies and their sequels. Producer Brad Fuller told Dread Central—prior to the movie's opening weekend—that an Elm Street sequel "would work well within a 3D environment."
We think that 3D movies have to be designed and written as such. If Eric [Heisserer] and Wesley [Strick] came to us with a Nightmare sequel script that is for a 3D movie, we'd be fools not to make it.
As for whether director Samuel Bayer will return for the sequel, producer Andrew Form said that Bayer isn't likely to come back.
[Production company] Platinum Dunes is very open to the possibility of a Nightmare sequel. It would be amazing to work with Jackie [Earle Haley] and the cast again. Unfortunately, as far as we know right now, Sam wouldn't be back to direct the follow-up, but we'd love to come back to Elm Street because Freddy always has a story to tell. We definitely left ourselves open for a sequel so it would be a great privilege to get to do another Nightmare film.
Meanwhile Bayer said a return wasn't to be counted out entirely.
Originally I know it was said I wouldn't be back for a sequel, but in this business, never say never. I still think as a filmmaker, since this is my first feature-length film, that I have a little catching up to do so I'd like to try other things first. But don't rule me out just yet if there is a sequel. You never know how things work out. I'd love to do it again.
Bayer may need the break. After Nightmare on Elm Street's opening weekend, Bayer told Fangoria that he was not pleased with the reactions of online fans.
Look, I'm gonna catch a lot of heat for this, but some of these fans on the web should just get up, stretch, breathe, go outside and get some fresh air, maybe get a girlfriend and just get a life. They should see the movie and make up their own minds.
Sounds like Bayer could be ready to move on to a different project, and it's possible that he won't even have to make that decision. Platinum Dunes are also responsible for the Friday the 13th remake, which was critically more successful and had a bigger opening weekend than Elm Street, and started work on a sequel, also to be shot in 3-D. That sequel is currently in limbo, with Paramount and New Line "evaluting" the possibility of a sequel, but, as Bayer has pointed out, don't rule anything out.