This story was mentioned in the documentary, but it turned out to be false. Robert Englund said in a London Film and Comic Con that David Warner doesn’t actually remember being contacted to play Freddy – and that’s because he wasn’t. Bob Shaye (founder of New Line Cinema) says he didn’t recall Warner ever being contacted and Wes Craven said while he worked with Warner on Scream 2, there’s no way he would have asked him to play Freddy.

The above makeup test photo is not David Warner, it’s an image of a bust David Miller made for Robert’s makeup. The truth was not uncovered until the book version of Never Sleep Again was being written and the story was more heavily researched. You can read all about it in the book.