Jackie Earle Haley is Freddy Krueger

Freddy Krueger has always been my favorite horror villain. So it's with mixed feelings that I take the news: the 1984 horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street is being remade. Without Robert Englund.

Who's the new Freddy? Oscar-nominated Jackie Earle Haley. He earned the Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role in the 2006 drama Little Children. He played a convicted sex offender in that one -- not a far cry from knife-glove-wielding Krueger. Haley also played Rorschach in the comic-book adaption Watchmen, and will star in Scorsese's Shutter Island with Leonardo DiCaprio later this year.

According to producer Brad Fuller, today they start the process of creating the Freddy makeup for Haley, complete with a contact-lenses fitting and a head cast to get that scary ole mask fitted just right. He's promised to blog about the behind-the-scenes action often; the movie's due out sometime next year.

I'm always skeptical of remakes, like Wes Craven's other classic, The Last House on the Left. Gave that remake a try last weekend, and it was so abysmal that my date actually wanted to leave in the middle. Here's hoping Haley can breathe some new life into a much-loved classic -- and no one will want to leave the theater before the popcorn is even finished.

sources: AFP, bloody-disgusting.com