A few years ago The Haunting of Hill House and Doctor Sleep director Mike Flanagan revealed he has an idea for a new A Nightmare on Elm Street movie. It’s a film project that he’s been dying to pitch, but he hasn’t had the opportunity to do that yet because, apparently, no one knows who he needs to meet with to pitch it!
During a recent interview on the Script Apart podcast, Flanagan offered an update on wanting to pitch his Freddy Kruger idea, he said:
“One of the [franchises] on my list forever has been A Nightmare on Elm Street. Boy, that would be fun. 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.”
The A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise was produced under New Line Cinema for years. Then, three years ago it was reported that Wes Craven’s estate got the rights back to the horror franchise and they were taking pitches from people for a new film and/or an HBO Max series. Then there was a report that claimed Warner Bros. Discovery was in talks to secure the rights to the franchise’s future.
As of right now, we don’t know where the rights of the franchise currently stand, which is why Flanagan is having such a big problem trying to pitch his movie! Flanagan added, “If I got to do this it would be so cool.”
There are no details on what Flanagan’s pitch would involve, but I would love to see him get to make the movie! I’ve enjoyed everything that he’s made so far, and I bet he’d do something great with the franchise. Hopefully, one day he actually gets to bring it to life.