In the mid-1980s, filmmaker Wes Craven invaded the dreams of horror fans when he released A Nightmare on Elm Street featuring Freddy Krueger, the spirit of a child killer who had been burned to death by the victims' parents. The slasher film became an instant classic and the blueprint for a franchise that lasted several decades. Along the way, A Nightmare on Elm Street saw the charismatic wrongdoer become recognized by the American Film Institute as the 40th greatest villain of all time and a fixture every Halloween. After being tabbed by Wes Craven for the original flick, Robert Englund portrayed Freddy Krueger in every installment from A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise) until 2010, when an actor named Jackie Earle Haley took over the reins. The movie received low ratings from media outlets like Rotten Tomatoes, Rolling Stone Magazine and Robert Ebert from the Chicago Sun-Times. So, perhaps it's time for a new spin on the legendary franchise with a new face in the starring role.
In a recent interview with Collider, Sung Kang, who is widely known for his roles in the Fast & Furious franchise and Power, pulled back the curtain on his directorial debut for an upcoming horror flick called Shakey Shivers. When asked about his inspiration behind the project, Kang credited films like Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street as an inspiration for his creative juices behind the camera. He also stated that he would love to gain firsthand experience in the horror genre, portraying the role of Wes Craven's most famous character, Freddy Krueger.
“I definitely appreciated and loved films like An American Werewolf in London, Gremlins, even Freddy Krueger," Kang said. "Jason was one of the characters that I grew up with. They're part of my video store filmography, right? As a kid, on Friday and Saturday nights, you get together with your friends and you watch these classic horror films...I’d love to play Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street. That character was just so fun. Having experience with prosthetic makeup and sitting in the chair for four hours like I did in the Obi-Wan series in Star Wars, that's the only part that I kind of wonder if I have the stamina to sit in the makeup chair for months. But that character was so fun! That sweater, to this day, is so iconic, and the knife fingers. That'd be on the bucket list for sure.”
Interestingly enough, last month, rumors began to surface about a reboot in the works for A Nightmare on Elm Street. In response to the speculation, Robert Englund, the original Freddie Krueger, said that he did not want to play the character again and that the role should be re-cast with someone established. The stars appear to be aligning for someone like Sung Kang to assume the role, but only time will tell if the reboot will go into pre-production.
Source: Collider
