The ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ reboot is set to scare the bejesus out of a new generation come April 2010. And the all-new Freddy Krueger is grateful to fans for creating an online buzz that prompted movie bosses to cast him in the iconic role.

Jackie Earle Haley talked to MTV about the role the web played in getting him a job. “The first I heard about it was people were suggesting me on the Internet for the part of Freddy. And I thought that was pretty cool,” Haley said. “I wasn’t sure who they had talked to, or what was going on.”

The story is that fans knew 62-year-old Robert Englund would likely be unable to portray the dream-haunting killer for much longer, and began speculating about who should next don the striped sweater. Talk turned to 48-year-old Haley, a former child star (he was Kelly in ‘The Bad News Bears’), who recently starred as the vigilante Rorschach in ‘The Watchmen’ and as a conflicted pedophile in ‘Little Children.’

Once the filmmakers behind the reboot, who are also responsible for remakes of ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ and ‘Friday the 13th,’ read the online buzz, they agreed Haley was a perfect fit and never even auditioned a second actor.

As for taking over the role from Englund, Haley says, “It’s definitely stepping into some big shoes. Robert Englund has done a fantastic job of making Freddy the iconic character that he is. And all these years later, the idea is to pay homage to that first film, and to re-envision it.”

He also says that director, Sam Bayer, is coming from a “darker, more serious place,” than Wes Craven, whose eighties ‘Elm Street’ flicks, though terrifying and gory, were heavily laden with groaners and punnery.

As the new Krueger works on his slicing and dicing, online buzz is building once again, this time for Haley to play the evil Sinestro in the ‘Green Lantern,’ which stars Ryan Reynolds.

(Photo by PR Photos)

Story provided by the Dish Information Corporation