Freddy Krueger’s Rival Movie Is Dead: Paramount Wins the ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ Race

Few horror franchises have had a more tangled path back to the screen than Freddy Krueger’s. For years, fans have waited for the dream demon to return, and the long wait has been complicated by one of the strangest rights situations in modern Hollywood.

After Wes Craven’s death, his widow Iya Labunka and son Jonathan Craven worked with attorney Marc Toberoff to reclaim the domestic rights to his original screenplay. Warner Bros., however, kept the franchise’s international rights, which set the stage for something unusual: 2 studios developing separate versions of the same nightmare.

That standoff now appears to be over. According to an exclusive from Dread Central, Warner Bros.’ competing ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ project is no longer moving forward, which leaves Paramount’s remake as the only Freddy film in development.

Paramount announced its deal with the Craven estate in July, licensing the US rights for a new film based on Craven’s original screenplay. The project sits under Paramount’s new genre label, Paramount Primal, which is led by J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules, the producers behind ‘Barbarian’ and ‘Friendship’. Labunka, Craven and Toberoff are producing.

Soon after, a report from Puck’s Kim Masters suggested that Warner Bros. was pursuing its own take. The studio was reportedly in talks with Lee Cronin, the filmmaker behind ‘Evil Dead Rise’, to write, direct and produce a rival film.

Dread Central reports that Warner Bros. was unhappy with Paramount’s plans, and that studio executive Michael De Luca pushed to get Warner’s version into production before Paramount could make theirs. The looming merger between the 2 companies only added urgency to that effort.

Then the merger closed. Paramount completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery in October, putting both studios under the same ownership, and De Luca and his co-chair Pamela Abdy were subsequently pushed out during the transition. With the executive who championed the rival project gone, the film appears to have gone with him.

Despite the word “remake” floating around online, Paramount’s film is not meant to be a shot-for-shot retelling. Paramount previously confirmed that the project is not a shot-by-shot remake, and the studio has described it as being set in the world of the original story and based on Craven’s screenplay.

Drawing from the original script does not mean recreating the first movie scene for scene, and that leaves plenty of room for new ideas. The same Dread Central report notes there is still no confirmed writer or director, and it is too early to say what kind of nightmare the team is planning.

The estate’s involvement is a key part of the story. Copyright law lets authors reclaim their rights 35 years after publication, which is how the Craven estate regained the rights to the screenplay in 2019. Craven’s family chose the Paramount Primal team to carry the story forward, and that endorsement gives the project a layer of legitimacy that earlier attempts lacked.

It is also a notable shift from the last time Freddy hit theaters. The 2010 reboot was produced by Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes, and Craven expressed his displeasure at not being consulted on it.

Some fans were excited by the idea of Cronin tackling the franchise, and it is easy to see why. His ‘Evil Dead Rise’ turned a modest $19 million budget into $147 million worldwide while earning praise from critics and fans alike, so his name carried real weight.

On the other hand, a single studio-backed project means fewer legal headaches and a clearer path forward. Neither Paramount nor Warner Bros. had set a release date for their projects, and Paramount has still not confirmed a cast or a premiere date.

For now, the future of the franchise rests with Paramount Primal and the Craven estate. The Elm Street rights split that once kept Freddy in limbo has effectively been resolved, even if plenty of questions remain about who will direct and who will wear the glove.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments!