Seems like Hollywood may well have a new Scream King, with today’s news that Kyle Gallner, star of The Haunting In Connecticut, has signed on to become one of Freddy Krueger’s potential victims in the A Nightmare On Elm Street remake.
Gallner will play Quentin, a high-school DJ who runs a show called Insomnia Radio. Given that little nugget of information, we imagine he has problems sleeping, which might come in handy when you’re dealing with a razor-fingered demon who attacks you when you’re dreaming.
Gallner is the film’s teen male lead, and joins Jackie Earle Haley, who earlier this week signed on to fill Robert Englund’s Fedora as Krueger, in a rare example of spot-on casting. However, a word of caution – traditionally in the Nightmare franchise, male leads don’t tend to last that long (only** Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge** had a male protagonist).
Yet Platinum Dunes, the company behind the remake, employed a male hero in their** Friday The 13th** remake, so maybe Gallner, who also appears in the upcoming Diablo Cody/Megan Fox horror-comedy Jennifer’s Body, will last longer than expected. Either way, he’ll doubtless be hoping to follow in the footsteps of the male lead from the 1984 Wes Craven original… one Mr. Johnny Depp.
Samuel Bayer is directing the movie, which will be produced by Platinum Dunes’ Andrew Form, Brad Fuller and Michael Bay.