It is official, the Nightmare on Elm St. series is getting a re-boot and principle shooting will commence on April 27th. Oh glorious me! But what is most interesting is that it already had its “re-boot”…of sorts.

Anyone remember Wes Craven’s New Nightmare? No? Well I’ll fill you in. Wes Craven sat down one day and decided to watch all of the many sequels back to back. His conclusion: basically, WTF! He thought the entire movie series had changed so much that none of them made any real sense in relation to his original vision. His fantastic idea of a serial child killer coming back from the grave and haunting dreams was taken, shaken and beaten so bad that he couldn’t follow it. He felt it was up to him to correct this, (unlike DC’s correction to their multi-verses) and wanted to set the series straight. Craven wrote a new story, making every single one of the previous films just movies in his new world. In this “New Nightmare” world, Heather Langenkamp, (who played Nancy from the first film) plays herself, living in “the real” word. All of a sudden strange things start happening to her, all dating back to the first Nightmare on Elm St. she worked on. She soon finds out that her husband is secretly working on a ‘New Nightmare’ film, written by Wes Craven. All of a sudden, the script from the movie becomes a reality, as Heather starts to experience strange happenings surrounding her and her family. To top it all off, the script calls for a new ‘Freddy’, one that’s darker, deadlier, more vicious. What’s Heather to do? The ‘Freddy’ she knew was fiction, but his newest incarnation is very real.

Now I think this story is the way to re-boot a series, not a re-imagining, a re-vision; but to go back to the roots. Don’t make it campy, or silly. Make it terrifying again; add some shock value.

This movie is set to release on April 16 2010. As much as I hate the idea of this re-boot, you’ll see me there, drink in hand; seeing if I’ll be watching a cinematic nightmare or if it’ll cause a nightmare.

Freddy Gets A Date [IGN.com]