One... Two... Bay's coming for you!

So they are relaunching the Freddy Krueger franchise. What a Shock! As recently as three weeks ago we heard that New Line were desperate to start movement on getting Mr. Krueger back on our screens, something which the company haven't exactly kept secret over the years. I mean after all, prior to Middle-Earth... the Krueger franchise was New Line's most successful revenue outlet, with nine money making films and two t.v. series'. And in another not so shock news, Variety say New Line have set Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes company to develop this brand newfranchise, which by the way the article is worded will no longer see the legendary Robert Englund (now 58) as Freddy.

So Bay gets his hands on another classic horror series. So far Dunes have brought back THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (which was actually not completely insulting to the original), THE AMITYVILLE HORROR and the dismal remake of THE HITCHER. They are also the studio behind Jason Voorhee's return (which has an April start date), a remake of NEAR DARK and a redo of Hitchcock's THE BIRDS. A writer will be hired once the WGA strike is over, with no director attached as of yet. So that's that. To be fair, I always thought the concept of NIGHTMARE was one of the most concrete and actually terrifying from any of the horror flicks of the 80's and I do believe there are still lots of room for scope to explore in this series which the FRIDAY THE 13TH and HALLOWEEN movies just don't have. Though we all know this decision has not come out of artistic merit. Oh, I shudder to think how many original horror scripts got a big fat rejection whilst franchises like this are churned up again and again.