Frankly, the news that a screenwriter had been hired to pen the latest installment in a horror franchise would not normally merit much attention.(Other than from the writer's agent and immediate family.) But when we're talking Wesley Strick and A Nightmare on Elm Street, my curiosity soared.

New Line Cinema has hired Strick to create their new version of Nightmare, according to The Hollywood Reporter. One of his first credits was as co-writer of Arachnophobia, Frank Marshall's clever creature feature, followed by Martin Scorsese's heavy-handed remake of Cape Fear, and later Mike Nichols' post-modern Wolf. His other credits include Final Analysis, The Saint, The Glass House and Doom.

While it's always tricky to assign credit or blame based solely on screen credits, I think it's safe to say that Strick has a distinct track record: complex psychological tension, sarcastic humor, and mucho macho boom boom (to coin a phrase for his uber-male characters). I'm not saying that all of these elements succeed in every movie he's had a hand in writing, but I am hopeful that Strick can come up with a fresh twist on Freddy Krueger.

The new Nightmare will retain the high school setting and "delve deeper in the psychology of nightmares and Krueger himself. The plan is to have a dark tone." If the plan is also to forget about a PG-13 rating, so much the better. New Line aims to release the film in time for the 25th anniversary of the original -- which would be November 2009.

• Ted Key (1912-2008) - Cartoonist and Screenwriter - Wrote the screenplay for Disney's The Cat from Outer Space and the stories for Gus and The Million Dollar Duck. He also created the characters "Sherman" and "Peabody" for The Bullwinkle Show. He died of bladder cancer May 3, in Tredyffrin Township, Pennsylvania. (News From Me)

• Henry Brant (1913-2008) - Composer - As an orchestrator, he worked on Cleopatra, Cheyenne Autumn, The Devil's Brigade, Carny, Good Morning, Vietnam and Pare Lorentz' The River and The Plow That Broke the Plains. He also wrote additional music for Carny and was a music technical assistant on Robert J. Flaherty's Louisiana Story. More recently he won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2002 for his 20-minute organ concerto "Ice Field." He died April 26 in Santa Barbara, California. (Washington Post)
• Alvin Colt (1915-2008) - Costume Designer - Created costumes for the original stage production of Li'l Abner, which were later used in the 1959 screen adaptation. He also designed costumes for the 1954 comedy Top Banana and the 1969 hitman movie Stiletto. He won a Tony Award in 1956 for the costumes for Broadway's Pipe Dream. He died May 4, in New York City. (Playbill)

Forget those rumors you heard last week about Robert Englund possibly reprising his role as Freddy Kruger (a franchise re-launch of A Nightmare on Elm Street was confirmed last week). They may not be true. But also forget what you might have read today about Kruger not returning. According to an interview with Englund by Bad Taste, the actor has not been approached ... yet. (Moviehole had said he would be approached). Of course, he may still be asked to suit up in the striped sweater and razor glove (Englund mentions needing to speak to his agent about it), but the actor doesn't seem to think it a good idea. He says he's too old to play Freddy -- apparently he hasn't been following the geriatric casting trends in Hollywood lately -- and joked that the new film's title would have to be "Freddy vs. Viagra" (har har). He did, however, mention that he'd be down for a cameo.

Englund spoke to Bad Taste from Italy, where he's prepping his next directorial effort, The Vij, in which he will also star alongside Christopher Lee and Russian actress Olga Shuvalova. According to Englund, the film is based on a short story by the Russian author Gogol, and will involve, "The Viji [sic], the guardian of the purgatory, who came to Earth." He also stated that it should be in black and white, but it will actually be in color (to appeal to a larger audience) and will be a mix of Kafka, German expressionism, the cinematography of Vittorio Storaro and classic stories like The Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Snow White. According to Variety, the film will be a "dark gothic fantasy" with a plot revolving "around an evil genie who conditions the actions of a young priest, leading him to commit murder and fall in love with an old witch who is actually not what she seems." The evil genie part makes me think of Wishmaster, which also starred Englund and which actually makes The Vij sound better than it probably will be considering Englund also directed 976-EVIL.

Some asshat in London has re-fueled the whole violence-in-media debate after indulging in his own murderous impulses. A rabid fiend of horror movies, especially the A Nightmare on Elm Street series, Jason Moore took a home-made Krueger knife glove and attacked his sleeping friend, slashing him in the face, neck and hands. The friend survived, but Moore has received life in prison for his crime. An investigator of the attack stated: "It is obvious these films influence the way people act. It gives us some concern, and unfortunately we have to pick up the pieces afterwards." Seeing that the guy was obsessed not only with horror movies, but with serial killers, there's many ways he could have acted out his quest for power, many of which could be much more heinous than anything he'd pick up from Wes Craven's horror creations.

According to the Evening Standard, Moore watched the original Elm Street about 20 times. If that's what made him dangerous, does that mean I will change my name to Heather and start killing jerky popular people because I've seen Heathers well over 20 times? I mean, I haven't made myself some Ich Luge bullets like Moore made four glove replicas, but then again, I've been itching to play croquet ... Anyhow, the man said that "he enjoyed how the gloves looked -- menacing -- and that he enjoyed 'the power' he felt when he put them on." The defense attorney says: "He has only ever wanted to understand his actions." That's easy. He used violence to overcome his personal issues and should have noticed long ago that a crazy obsession with murderers is not healthy. If he had any interest in accuracy, he would've spent this energy trying to get into other people's dreams. Then he would've failed, and his friend wouldn't be physically and emotionally scarred for life.

Movie theaters and video games go hand in hand. I remember that when multiplexes first started springing up around me in the early '80s, they all featured an abundance of arcade games. Besides the fact that the bigger theaters had bigger lobbies to hold a number of games, and besides the fact that games were such a big trend when multiplex construction was on the rise, cinema planners and owners were smart to see the connection between one visual entertainment and another. Eventually, game systems at home caused a decline in arcade games. Local arcades closed down and new theaters were built with less space for the games. I did notice while working in movie theaters that kids would come in solely to use the games without interest in buying a movie ticket, but for the most part game playing at the cinema has significantly decreased in popularity from what it once was.

Starting November 18, however, video gaming at the cinema is set to take a new turn -- in Belgium, at least. A new theater run by Kinepolis (the company credited with building the first megaplex, by the way) in Bruges will be offering a service where people can play video games on the big screen. The service will allow customers to play either their own PS2 games or one of the titles provided by the theater in one of their digital-screen auditoriums Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. The cost is to be 15 Euros ($19 US) per half-hour, per console (regardless of number of players).

With Halloween right around the corner, there's nothing more appropriate than purchasing a prop from a horror movie. What better costume than one actually used in a film? What better haunted house than one featured on screen? There are probably a ton of auctions and sales out there for these kinds of things, and I already pointed you folks in the direction of those houses from A Nightmare on Elm Street and In Cold Blood, either (or both) of which could be yours. Now, our friends over at Autoblog have some info about eBay auctions for some famous cars from your favorite horror films. There are three of them up for grabs: the 1958 Fury from Christine; the Dodge van from the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; and the Cadillac Eldorado used in The Devil's Rejects (and The Bad News Bears).

The seller is the Volo Auto Museum, and they have a few non-horror movie cars available too, including the one from Wayne's World and one ridiculous boat used in The Flintstones. But since this season calls for frights, you should be thinking more about the three horror vehicles. Imagine one of them (or all) parked in front of your new Freddy Krueger house? I'm sure your neighbor would think twice about letting their dog poop on your front lawn.

I bet there are some real hardcore fans of A Nightmare on Elm Street who bought a house on Elm Street in their own town just to have that association. But if they wanted to be a REAL hardcore fan, they'd get a place on N. Genesee Avenue. More specifically, they'd get the place at 1428 N. Genesee Avenue in Los Angeles. For those of us who don't know everything Freddy Krueger, that address is the location of the house used in the Nightmare films, otherwise known as "Nancy's house." It has 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, a pool and a fireplace. And it is selling for just under $2 million. The ad for the home says it's a bit of a fixer (must be all the damage from Freddy) but "with some work this could be your Family Dream House." Right. Because the kids are really going to love living there. Of course, there are some twisted people out there, and I can envision a fan-couple moving in with their young daughters, who they make play jump rope on the front walkway.

As for anyone looking for a creepy home with a little more space, there's also the Clutter Home in Holcomb, Kansas. This home is available through a private auction and has the added creepiness factor of actually being a multiple murder site. Yes, I think it was featured in In Cold Blood (but maybe not in Capote or Infamous). However more than being a movie location, it's where the Clutter family were killed in the middle of the night by Perry Smith and Richard Hickcock. This "beautiful" property has 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and, "ample space for the children to work on 4-H projects and school activities."

Whichever of these you choose, you should start packing right away, because with Halloween right around the corner, you'll definitely want to do something extra scary for the trick-or-treaters (actually, the Clutter home probably isn't a popular trick-or-treat stop unless the Holcomb kids have good legs and not much interest in filling their candy bags).