Nightmare on Elm Street is one of my favourite film franchise out there, and thanks to the late great Wes Craven we will be hiding from Freddy Krueger in every dream we have. What I have noticed while watching through the series is the amount of debut or very early chance bigger names in Hollywood got in the franchise, we all know about Johnny Depp so I will look at five more big names from the franchise who got their first chances in Hollywood.
5. Patricia Arquette – Nightmare on Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors
Patricia got the leading role in the third instalment of the franchise where she plays one of the latest victims of Freddy, nearly 20 years later she would go on to win an Oscar.
4. Renny Harlin – Nightmare on Elm Street 4 Dream Master
Renny is the one director who has gone onto make some of the biggest action movies of all time, Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger and Deep Blue Sea, sure these are not the most popular but they are all ones people talk about.
3. Ken & Jim Wheat – Nightmare on Elm Street 4 Dream Master
This brother pairing are known for the screenplays and this was one of their first, the pair would go onto create the character of Riddick in the Pitch Black, Chronicles of Riddick and Riddick films.
2. Stephen Hopkins – Nightmare on Elm Street 5 Dream Child
Not the best of the series at all but Stephen did such a good job in limited time his next project was Predator 2 he would later go onto win a Prime Time Emmy for The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
1. Frank Darabont – Nightmare on Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors
Frank has his first screen writing credit for this film, he is a three time Oscar nominated writer/director who went on to bring us The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Majestic and The Mist.
Cool article. Some big names. Plus, Darabont returned to gore with Walking Dead, first season. I love these Nightmare movies.. tons of 80s fun.
thanks, i will be covering the whole franchise starting midnight tonight till halloween
Awesome. I’ll check those out for sure. I’m doing the franchise for my series too – BOOBS, BLOOD & THE BEAST: 31 Nights of Horror.
I was hoping Darabont would be your number one. Love him. 🙂
couldn’t ignore one of the best directors out there, but to think dream warriors was his first work unbelievable
I don’t find it unbelievable since Dream Warriors RULES. 😉 lol
it is the best sequel until Craven comes back
P.S I only just noticed exactly what was going on in that pic of Patrica LOL!
i think this is a good start for my nightmare on elm street marathon to end halloween
Oooooh! Yes indeed!!!!! 🙂
I always forget Frank Darabont wrote A Nightmare on Elm Street 3. Thanks for the reminder 🙂
Sigh…maybe if he still wrote/directed The Walking Dead it’d still be good!
You could also have included Laurence Fishburne in this list 🙂 perhaps an honourable mention?
I was going to add him but he had been around for about 10 years before his role, most of the rest are first works
Yes I thought as much 🙂
Also, this is only a constructive tip I’m not ripping holes or anything, but I think you should have a picture of the actor or actress you’re talking about, rather than the DVD cover. It makes it more interesting to have a point of reference who you’re talking about. I’m only saying that as a tip, I think the whole article was great! 🙂
yeah, maybe next time i will but i didn’t think people would know who these people were from just a picture, i should have added their other work in picture too
It’s just one of those things I think, human nature, you’d like to see a pic of who’s being talked about. It doesn’t have to be a pic from the Nightmare series.
Sorry I feel like I’m throwing a spanner in the works, I LOVE the post!!!!!! 🙂