Whoa. I really hadn’t expected to see the Nightmare on Elm Street trailer up, and frankly, I had to watch it through once before I could even write about it. I had already been rickrolled several times prior, you understand, and so I watched, and I was downright surprised.
See, the fact that Michael Bay is attached to this for anything more responsible than fetching coffee and signing checks has me pathologically unnerved. But when I watched it, and saw how at least fairly close to the original it seemed, I was actually really surprised. Sufficiently surprised to issue a statement of support for this one.
I’m amazed to say it but this might actually be good. Jackie Earle Haley definitely has some serious chops, and his Rorschach was a great jumping off point for Krueger who, when you come right down to it, is essentially acting as a vigilante in his own twisted logic. But anyway–the trailer is directly below, and rest assured, this one should amaze you as much as it did me.
Jackie Earle Haley, who plays Rorschach in Watchmen, is set to star as horrific killer Freddy Krueger.
Samuel Bayer will direct from Wesley Strick’s script. Filming will start in Chicago.
A Nightmare on Elm Streetcenters on the horrific killer, who haunts the dreams of teenagers and kills them in their sleep. Krueger was originally played by Robert Englund in the 1984 original, spawning nine films and two TV series.
Haley made a smart move taking this role. The remake has Michael Bay behind it and some other big suits, which means the Elm Street franchise will start all over again like Friday the 13th.
Hype can be a dangerous thing. While the right kind of hype distributed across enough time can spell big bucks in Hollywood, hype can also lead to disappointment. Just look at the reaction of most to the fourth and unnecessary Indiana Jones film. Watchmen, the latest adaptation of a work by graphic novelist Alan Moore, has had a shady history, spanning decades. With Terry Gilliam initially excited about making a version, like most Gilliam dreams it dissipated. Next (after tantalising news that Darren Aronofsky was attached to direct) came Paul Greengrass’s inevitably gritty version that screeched to a halt due to financial difficulties and a change in studio upper management. Even this release had its fair share of difficulty, when Fox and Warner Bros went to court over who had rights to the story.
But the real difficulty lay in adapting such a wide-reaching meta-narrative. Set in an alternative 1985, in which the USA won Vietnam, Nixon is still the president, and the world holds its breath as nuclear warfare looms closer, the tale starts with the death of a superhero known as The Comedian. By the 80’s superheroes have a bitter association, but the mysterious yet psychopathic and misanthropic masked detective known as Rorschach has a gut feeling that the murder leads to something big. His investigation brings us to his associates, the Watchmen, including the aging Daniel Dreiberg, a bookish man who longs to return to his superhero identity as NightOwl, Ozymandias, the smartest man on the plant who is attempting to prevent WWIII by creating an alternative energy source, Dr. Manhattan, the only real superhero, a man made of energy who can control time and space and the sole reason for the USA winning the Vietnam war, and Laurie Jupiter, his girlfriend who feels Manhattan is losing his touch with humanity.
The comic book adopts multiple stories and narratives, all building not just on a series of characters relating to a single plot, but building a fully realised alternative world, all contributing to a sense of dread at the impending doom. But what’s most important is that the comic takes time to delve into the heros’ lives and feelings, to elevate them beyond merely figures of action. To be able to recreate this in 160 minutes is no easy task, and it’s a shame that director Zack Snyder was allowed to take the reins on this. Snyder impressed with a tense remake of Dawn of the Dead, and then made the unintentionally hilarious 300, a vacuous film that would have been half the running time if the slow-motion sequences were played at normal speed. Neither of these films displayed the director’s understanding of character, and sadly this weakness is what lets Watchmen down. Read the rest of this entry »
