Movies
New Line Will Eventually Get Around to Remaking ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’
It’s been three years since we learned that New Line Cinema was developing yet another remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Nothing has changed, although the success of Universal Pictures’ Halloween has fans wondering when Freddy Krueger will return to the big screen. The answer is, eventually. Right now, New Line is focused on their Conjuring universe.
“It’s still happening,” writer David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick tells GameSpot.
“Nothing is percolating just yet. The Conjuring universe is sort of first and foremost on [New Line Cinema’s] horror burner. Everybody wants to see Freddy again I think, so I think it’s inevitable at some point.”
Let’s be very clear here, the response is both conjecture and speculation. The last I checked in (Oct. 21), I was told the exact same thing from several sources: Conjuring, Conjuring, Conjuring. I was told there was zero movement or discussion on Johnson-McGoldrick’s screenplay, although one has to hope that with James Wan finished with Aquaman, maybe he finds a way to create a slasher universe alongside his Conjuring films over at Warner Bros./New Line?
As we broke the news earlier this fall, LeBron James‘ SpringHill Entertainment will produce a remake of Friday the 13th with Roy Lee‘s Vertigo Entertainment, and Legendary has acquired the rights to revive Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well as Leatherface, so a shared universe is possible. The recent success of horror and the slasher film surely will help propel these films and characters back to the big screen, the only question is when? 2019 could be the year we’ve all been waiting for…
Digressing, Samuel Bayer directed the 2010 Elm Street reboot that introduced Jackie Earle Haley as the new Freddy. Robert Englund played the iconic slasher from Wes Craven’s 1984 A Nightmare On Elm Street through several films, concluding in 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason.
With Halloween picking up where John Carpenter’s film left off, and retconning the sequels, could A Nightmare on Elm Street follow suit and bring Englund back for one last hurrah?
I was never against Sony’s initial idea to produce solo movies based on Spider-Man’s most memorable supervillains. After all, a hero is only as good as his Rogues’ Gallery is intimidating, so it stands to reason that there were plenty of dark stories to tell here.
While rushed productions like Morbius and Kraven the Hunter didn’t quite turn out as I had hoped, it’s a relief to see James Gunn and the DC Extended Universe learn the right lessons from Marvel’s flops by investing in supervillain stories that aren’t afraid to step into the horror genre.
The new trailer for James Watkins’ upcoming Clayface movie is a great example of this, as the new footage confirms our suspicions that the movie is set to be a full-on piece of body horror focusing more on telling a standalone scary story than setting up a brand.
With that in mind, I’ve decided to take a closer look at the trailer in order to find out what we can expect from this highly anticipated comic-book adaptation from hell.
So without further ado, here are four things we learned from the new Clayface trailer!
4. Matt Hagen is a Club Vesuvius Regular
A seedy nightclub owned by “former” mobster Johnny Sabatino, the comic books have established Club Vesuvius as a hotspot for criminal activity and metahuman action since 2009. Throughout the years, the club has seen everything from an attempted arson by Firefly to magical acts performed by Zatanna herself.
The trailer for Clayface appears to suggest that Vesuvius will feature prominently in this story as well, as the footage shows us several shots of Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) casually attending the club as well as a couple of more concerning moments where Gotham City Police roll up to the establishment to deal with some kind of emergency.
3. The Movie Will Not Adapt Any Single Specific Comic
As I mentioned before in my Clayface primer for horror fans who aren’t all that familiar with the character, the initial teaser for the film had me convinced that the project would be more of an adaptation of Batman: The Animated Series’ two-part episode Feat of Clay rather than any specific comic-book.
This latest trailer has only confirmed my suspicions, with Hagen’s predicament here feeling much more in line with Marv Wolfman and Michael Reaves’ sympathetic vision of the character than the more traditional criminal that we usually see in the comics. That being said, I’m curious to see how the filmmakers intend to connect this tragic version of Clayface to the more unpleasant monster we saw in Creature Commandos now that it’s been confirmed that these are indeed the same person.
2. James Watkins is Combining Practical and Digital Effects
I’ll always prefer a well-executed practical effect over CGI simply because the former is closer to the stage magic that inspired early moviemaking. That being said, there’s an undeniable artistry to well-crafted visual effects, and I’d argue that a character like Clayface requires the best of both worlds in order to be convincingly brought to life on the big screen.
I’m clearly not the only one who thinks so, as the trailer has shown us that Watkins is combining digital imagery with prosthetics and plenty of flesh-colored goop to depict Hagen’s unique brand of monstrous body horror. James Gunn had already promised us that the film would feature plenty of old-school practical effects wizardry, so it’s exciting to see that this approach in action.
1. Hagen Will Eventually Transform into Clayface’s Iconic True Form
In the comics, whenever Clayface isn’t pretending to be someone else, the character spends most of his time in his “natural” form resembling a gigantic golem-like monster. This look has certainly evolved over the years, but, at this point, most artists have settled on a vaguely humanoid shape accompanied by a gaping maw (though the villain’s terrifying re-imagining in DC’s Absolute Universe is a bit more complicated than that).
While fans were initially skeptical regarding whether or not the upcoming adaptation would even feature this admittedly outlandish design, the trailer has basically confirmed that Hagen’s condition will get progressively worse until he finally resembles the hulking monstrosity from the comics!
Be sure to comment below if you think we overlooked any interesting details in the trailer, and keep in mind that Clayface will be hitting theaters on October 23.
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