Clay Enos. TM & © DC ComicsJackie Earle Haley has gone from Little Children to teen tormentor.
The Oscar-nominated actor will don Freddy Krueger's signature striped sweater in the upcoming revamp of A Nightmare on Elm Street, New Line's attempt to scream new life into the 25-year-old slasher-flick franchise.
Cameras are expected to start rolling May 5 in Chicago, according to the Hollywood Reporter, which first learned that Haley would be fitted for Robert Englund's razor glove.
Haley, who is in theaters now wearing a disturbing mask of a different sort as the conflicted Rorschach in the superhero ensemble Watchmen, languished in bit parts for years after starring in The Bad News Bears when he was 15. But his visceral performance as a pedophile in 2006's Little Children brought him back from the edge of obscurity.
"Looking at his performance in Watchmen, here's a guy playing a character under a mask yet you feel tremendous empathy for him," Nightmare director Samuel Bayer told THR. "And in Nightmare, he is going to be under prosthetic makeup. You have to feel something for the character. The greatest villains are multidimensional and I think he will bring that to the character."