Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors director Chuck Russell, who also directed The Mask, The Blob and Eraser, has been talking about his experiences on the Elm Street franchise and that he would be very much open to directing another film if all the pieces fell into place – as well as talking about who might take over the role of Freddy Krueger in the future.
The third film in the Elm Street franchise is perhaps the most loved amongst fans of the series and one that helped catapult Freddy Krueger – played by Robert Englund – into full pop-culture status. Indeed, at the time, it was the highest-grossing film of the series, until its sequels A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Child and 2003’s Freddy Vs Jason stole the top spots.
Dread Central had the chance to chat with the director about his time on the Elm Street series on their Development Hell podcast, and Russell says he would love to do another one if given the chance, saying:
“I’d love to do another Elm Street if there was the full support of everybody… Patricia Arquette has said she’d like to do it again in the press. Very interesting, because she didn’t talk about it a lot earlier in her career. She was so terrific and went on to have such a great career — I think that’s a good idea too. I still think Robert, for me, is the only Freddy. Were I to be involved in a new Elm Street, A, I’d be delighted, and B, my first goal would be to get Robert involved.“
In recent years, star Englund has said is done playing Krueger and that perhaps someone else would be needed to star in the red and black striped jumper and hat (Englund had reportedly said Kevin Bacon would be a good fit), but Josh Korngut – host of the Dread Central podcast that Russell appeared on – had another suggestion: one Jim Carrey, after the two had worked together on 1994’s The Mask.
Russell didn’t dislike the idea, though, saying:
“Yeah, that would be great. Jim, in my opinion, could almost do anything if he put his heart into it… For Jim to do it, we’d have to do something that was another leap in the Elm Street series — a little bit like what Wes did with his very meta New Nightmare. I think Jim would only consider it, and I’d only consider harnessing Jim, if there was a bold new direction for Elm Street.“
With word that Carrey is coming out of “retirement” again to star in Colin Trevorrow’s live-action adaptation of The Jetsons, would playing such a monstrous character under make-up in a bold new take on the Elm Street series be up his street? We, for one, think it’s a fascinating idea.
A new Nightmare on Elm Street 4K UHD 7-film collection is released in the UK on October 27th.
