Billy Bob Thorton could be the next ‘Freddy Krueger’

So we know that Michael Bay‘s Platinum Dunes production company has plans to remake Wes Craven’s horror classic A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. The entire movie would get the facelift that an appropriate budget would provide, including a new dream-dwelling mass murderer. But who could possibly replace Robert Englund as the iconic rake-handed Freddy Krueger?

How about Oscar-winning actor Billy Bob Thornton? It’s just a rumor at this point — but it was initiated by the original Freddy himself. Robert Englund was on the late night radio show Loveline last week to promote JACK BROOKS, MONSTER SLAYER (and discuss sex, I guess), and was inevitably asked about the NIGHTMARE reboot. And Englund stated that the last gossip he heard was that Thornton could be slipping on the sweater and burn makeup for the role.

Englund also claims he’s not opposed to being replaced (as he says, he already made the movie), or the remake itself, since he feels it’s the sort of movie that deserves a bigger budget for the dreamscape special effects (they ran out of money while making the first movie).

Thornton seems like the kind of dude who’s receptive to any sort of material, and he does have an existing Bay connection from ARMAGEDDON. Food for thought (or nightmares)!