After resurrecting his career from the depths of child-actor hell, Jackie Earle Haley has been cast as the new Freddy Kreuger in the upcoming Nightmare on Elm Street remake.

J.E. Haley has had one of the best comeback stories of the last twenty years, especially for a guy whose face is made for character acting. He was excellent as the child predator in Little Children, and a revelation in Watchmen. Can he bring that same twisted, utterly human appeal to Freddy?

Samuel Bayer is directing the relaunch, which was written by Wesley Strick. The movie starts filming on May 5 in Chicago.

The Haunting in Connecticut star Kyle Gallner has been cast as Quentin in the film as well.

Platinum Dunes’ Andrew Form and Brad Fuller are producing. John Rickard is co-producing.

“Looking at his performance in ‘Watchmen,’ here’s a guy playing a character under a mask yet you feel tremendous empathy for him,” Bayer told The Hollywood Reporter. “And in ‘Nightmare,’ he is going to be under prosthetic make-up. You have to feel something for the character. The greatest villains are multi-dimensional and I think he will bring that to the character.”

Bayer called this take of Krueger “Nosferatu meets Ed Gaines.”