Video:A Nightmare on Elm Street-Samuel Bayer Interview, Comic Con
with Rebecca MurraySamuel Bayer makes his feature film directorial debut with 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' starring Jackie Earle Haley in the role of Freddy Krueger. At the 2009 San Diego Comic Con, Bayer talked about this revamp of the franchise and the new Freddy.
Transcript:A Nightmare on Elm Street-Samuel Bayer Interview, Comic Con
Warner Bros Pictures' A Nightmare on Elm Street at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con.
A Nightmare on Elm Street Director Samuel Bayer
How does having a music video background help in directing a horror movie?
Samuel Bayer: "Well, she's [meaning my camera woman] got on the band I did all the videos for. I did all the Green Day videos. How does it? I don't know. I did music videos and commercials for a long time. My business is fast. We do things really, really fast and I think that maybe the only thing that I brought to this process was the ability to try and do a lot within a limited schedule. We tried to make a very big-looking movie and not have it... I've always said I don't want to be relegated to the horror movie - like it's not an art house movie, it's not a horror movie, it's just a movie."
What's the tone you're going for? It's not campy.
Samuel Bayer: "No. There's no jokes in our movie."
Lots of blood, guts and gore?
Samuel Bayer: "I'm not really into blood and guts, but I'm into real fear. I think real fear is if you look at The Exorcist or Rosemary's Baby or The Shining, I don't know how much blood and guts is in that stuff. I'm really a prude. I don't like to see limbs cut off and stuff like that. I think you're going to see more of a psychological horror than physical, although there is blood and guts."
It has the time same title but it's not a remake, right? It's more like a reboot - or how would you describe it?
Samuel Bayer: "Yeah. This is a reboot. I like using Batman as a reference. I think Tim Burton did an incredible job of reinventing Batman and I think Christopher Nolan did an incredible job. And I'm not comparing myself to them at all, but I'd like to think that we've taken something that's very famous and iconic, and you're going to recognize the iconic elements of it, but you're also going to see it reinvented."
So is Jackie Earle Haley's Freddy different than Robert Englund's Freddy?
Samuel Bayer: "Oh, absolutely. Jackie's Freddy is a different character."
But he still wears the iconic clothes, right?
Samuel Bayer: "The first decision that we made is that the things, it's just like Batman's cape - you have to have it. So it's the hat, the sweater, and the glove, and take it from there."