Apr 6 2009Jackie Earle Haley Officially Creating Nightmares on Specific Street

Adding to his geek cred and ensuring him a signing booth at comic cons in case this acting this doesn't work out, Jackie Earle Haley has officially signed on to wear a blade-covered glove the A Nightmare on Elm Street remake. From Variety:

Jackie Earle Haley is moving to Elm Street, signing to star as iconic killer Freddy Krueger in New Line and Platinum Dunes' relaunch of "A Nightmare on Elm Street."

Platinum Dunes partners Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form are producing with John Ricard co-producing. Samuel Bayer will direct from Wesley Strick's script, with lensing set to begin next month in Chicago.

New Line decided last year to relaunch the movie series centered on the iconic killer, who haunts the dreams of teenagers and kills them in their sleep. Krueger was played by Robert Englund in the 1984 original, spawning nine films and two TV series in what was New Line's most lucrative franchise until "The Lord of the Rings."

It's so much harder to completely deride these cash-grab sequels when they make a smart, fan-approved decision like this one. A naturally creepy, Academy Award-nominated actor playing the infamous dream-haunting killer sounds unnervingly positive. Where's the talk of arbitrary, unnecessary updates to the iconic Freddy Krueger appearance? This morsel isn't enough to lure me into the positivity van, but I am cautiously approaching it.