There are a lot of big names in the genre who want to get the chance to make a new entry in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, so it’s baffling that we never hear anything about such a project making any sort of progress. Elijah Wood and his SpectreVision producing partner Daniel Noah have said they want to make an Elm Street movie and have “been in touch with the rights holders many times”. Blumhouse founder Jason Blum has said he’s interested in going to Elm Street. Guy Busick, co-writer of Scream 2022 and the upcoming Scream 6, let it be known he wants to write Elm Street and Friday the 13th movies. And way back in 2019, Mike Flanagan tweeted that he had a pitch for a new Nightmare on Elm Street. Three and a half years later, during a conversation on the Script Apart podcast, Flanagan confirmed that he has a pitch – he just can’t figure out who to pitch it to.
It was in September of 2019 that we heard Wes Craven’s estate had secured the rights to the Elm Street franchise. In November of that year, it was said that they were actively taking pitches. But apparently the rights issue isn’t as clear-cut as it appeared to be.
On Script Apart, Flanagan said (with thanks to ComicBook.com for the transcription), “One of the (franchises) on my list forever has been A Nightmare on Elm Street. Boy, that would be fun (to work on). I have a whole take for it that I worked out a couple of years ago and my understanding is the rights situation for that title is so fraught, no one knows who controls it really, and no one knows who to pitch. So, I keep saying to my agents, ‘Send me in on Nightmare on Elm Street,’ and they’re like, ‘We’d love to, [but] we have no idea who you should talk to.’ And I’ve talked to — I spent almost a year of my life with (A Nightmare on Elm Street star) Heather Langenkamp, and we would talk about it. It’s like, nobody knows what to do.“
Langenkamp had a major role in the Flanagan-produced Netflix series The Midnight Club, and has said that she would like to be given the chance to battle Freddy one last time. She not only starred in the first Elm Street movie, but also returned for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (where her character Nancy Thompson was killed off) and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (where she played a version of herself).
Most of the filmmakers who want to make a new Elm Street movie have said that they would want to bring Robert Englund back as Freddy Krueger, but Englund isn’t getting any younger (he’s now 75), so it’s a shame nobody has been able to figure out the rights situation yet and get a new movie into production. Here’s hoping it will happen soon.
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