Movies
[Exclusive] U.S. Rights to ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ Have Reverted Back to Wes Craven’s Estate
One of the biggest conversations in the horror community right now is the current state of the Friday the 13th franchise, which is trapped in a legal battle between two parties.
It all started when Friday the 13th writer Victor Miller exercised a legal right that would revert the ownership of the story back to him. Director Sean Cunningham’s Horror, Inc. however, refutes this, and that’s why we are where we are. While all of us were focusing on Friday, I checked in on the status of another iconic slasher, one who lays dormant in Springwood, OH.
What I discovered is that Wes Craven‘s Estate pulled a similar maneuver this year and regained the U.S. rights to both A Nightmare on Elm Street and its red and green sweater/fedora-wearing dream demon, Freddy Krueger. Long story short, the law is that writers can reclaim ownership of their work after 35 years, and 2019 marks 35 years since Elm Street was released. Like Victor Miller, Craven’s estate was, therefore, able to legally reclaim ownership of the original film this year, which was of course written and directed by the late Wes Craven.
The implications are unknown to me as I’m not a lawyer, but the good news is that there appears to be no third party standing in the way of Craven’s estate from making deals for the franchise or the iconic slasher. In other words, there’s no current legal battle over the rights, allowing Craven’s estate control over the franchise’s future here in the States. From what I understand, WB/New Line Cinema still controls international rights, much like Friday the 13th.
More as we learn it.
We’re just one month away from the release of Lionsgate’s The Crow in theaters, a fresh new take on the iconic tale with Bill Skarsgård (IT) taking over the titular role.
The Crow brings the franchise back to theaters on August 23. While you wait, Lionsgate has released a clip this week that shows just how indestructible Eric Draven really is.
The new movie is rated “R” for…
“Strong bloody violence, gore, language, sexuality/nudity, and drug use.”
From director Rupert Sanders, Skarsgård leads the cast of The Crow, with FKA Twigs co-starring in the reboot. Danny Huston (30 Days of Night) also stars, alongside Laura Birn (Foundation), Sami Bouajila (A Son), and Jordan Bolger (The Woman King).
In the new movie, “Soulmates Eric Draven (Skarsgård) and Shelly Webster (FKA Twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.”
Zach Baylin (King Richard) and Will Schneider wrote the script, with the new movie of course based on James O’Barr’s original graphic novel that spawned a previous film franchise.
In the 1994 movie starring the late Brandon Lee, Eric Draven’s fiancée is killed alongside Draven, setting the film’s revenge storyline into motion. It spawned a handful of sequels.
Friday, July 19: These 5 New Horror Movies Just Released Today
Bath & Body Works Launches Halloween 2024 Collection
‘The Beast Within’ Review – Gothic Horror Fairy Tale Unleashes a Monster Metaphor
‘Horror in the High Desert 3’ Review – A Tense, Creepy Exercise in High Strangeness
‘Terrifier 3’ – Four New Images Unleashed Ahead of Teaser Trailer on Wednesday!
You must be logged in to post a comment.