One day before the Platinum Dunes reboot of Friday the 13th is released, one of their next horror reboots has obtained a captain. New Line Cinema and sub-studio Platinum Dunes have announced that Samuel Bayer will direct A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Bayer is best known for his work on music videos, having directed a ton of them since 1991 including — The Offspring’s Gotta Get Away, The Smashing Pumpkins’ Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Marylin Manson’s Coma White and Disposable Teens, Melissa Etheridge’s Come To My Window, Blind Melon’s No Rain with the nightmare-inducing little girl in the bumblebee costume, Metallica’s Until It Sleeps, and Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit. These are just a few notable ones of many. The dude has his hand in a ton of various artists’ music videos. Bayer has also ton a bunch of big time product commercials.

As you all know, A Nightmare on Elm Street deals in the world of Freddy Krueger, a child killer who was burned alive and who infiltrates young people’s dreams, killing them while they sleep, which in-turn, kills them in reality. The reboot is expected to use the successful formula of telling a sort of origins story with the first movie as the prime basis.

The biggest hurdle that producers Michael Bay, Brad Fuller, and Andrew Form have yet to face is the casting of Freddy Krueger. Unlike with Friday the 13th, where you simply find a giant man who has a knack for tilting his head at the perfect angle and at the perfect moment, Freddy is based very much on expressions and dialogue as well as his iconic look. With the decision to pass on the man who made Freddy who he is, Robert Englund, the question remains — who could possibly pull it off successfully?

We are sure to find out who that is soon enough.

[Source: THR's Risky Biz]