The Grudge and A Nightmare on Elm Street Reboots Are Happening
Sources from Deadline and Bloody Disgusting confirm The Grudge and A Nightmare on Elm Street will receive the reboot treatment. Continue on if you are a glutton for [reboot] punishment.
Bring back the now 21 year old "Toshio"
According to Deadline sources, Nicolas Pesce is set to write and direct The Grudge reboot for Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures. Yes, the same Ghost House Pictures that produced the remakes for The Grudge 1-2-3 based on Takashi Shimizu 2002 Ju-On: The Grudge series about a mysterious and vengeful spirit who marks and pursues anybody that dares enter the house in which it resides.
Pesce is no stranger to horror having debuted his 2016 Sundance drama/horror The Eyes of My Mother but will tasked with re-writing a preliminary script written by Jeff Buhler (who is currently drafting the script for a Jacobs Ladder reboot) for series that lost steam after 2009's third iteration of The Grudge.
Ghost House Pictures was co-founded by Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert and has produced 15 films since the Production company’s debut of 2004’s The Grudge starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. Ghost House' Don’t Breathe ('16), Evil Dead (’13), and Drag Me To Hell (’09) delivered healthy box office returns along with critic praise. But if we are ultimately questioning why The Grudge reboot is a thing, let’s circle back to the high margin return for 2004's remake with a budget of $10 million and $187 million international gross; Ghost House’ highest grossing film to date.
9...10...Freddy's Back Again. Just make sure it's not Earle Haley's Fred Krueger. Please and Thank You.
But if The Grudge reboot news is not enough for you, it should be cautioned the smolder from 2010’s A Nightmare on Elm Street reboot - co-produced by New Line and Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes - is slowly being reignited by New Line and Warner Bros. Pictures. The Tracking-Board first reported in 2015 that New Line/WB planned to reboot the series hiring screenwriter David Leslie Johnson (Orphan, The Conjuring). Now that Johnson is attached to "The Conjuring 3", several sites publicized a now debunked plot description from A Nightmare on Elm Street IMDB entry. Here it is – and it’s #bad.
When Brenton Higgins begins to appear in other people’s dreams at will, he has no idea that he is the illegitimate son of Freddy Krueger. Recently moving back to Elm Street, Brenton discovers his hidden past and finds himself on a collision cause with Freddy himself. Brenton is also pursued by a mysterious secret government agency, led by Professor Matthew Luk. They want his gift. What they don’t know is that they will get Krueger, with hell to pay.
If anyone remembers the plausible but yucky concept that Fred Krueger actually produced an offspring (Kathering Krueger) in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, than the idea of Fred's illegitimate son reeks of late night booze and illicit consent. Sources for Bloody-Disgusting confirm the David Leslie Johnson-penned A Nightmare On Elm Street reboot is very much still in the works but more than likely falls last in the pecking order with New Line's IT (Part II) and Annabelle iterations coupled with Johnson’s The Conjuring 3 and Dungeons and Dragons projects. Alert me when New Line/WB announces Kevin Bacon will resurrect Freddy Krueger.
Like it or not IT, Flatliners, Halloween, Leatherface, and Suspiria are all coming down the pipeline. If we are lucky, one of these will hit from a critical lens. As for The Grudge and Elm Street, watch the originals; as usual.
