The app game FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S was released four years ago, and a cinematic adaptation of it has gradually been making its way through development hell for the last three and a half years. First set up at Warner Bros. with the POLTERGEIST remake's Gil Kenan attached to direct, the project then moved over to Blumhouse Productions, and seven months ago we heard that Chris Columbus, writer of GREMLINS and THE GOONIES and director of such films as ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING, the first two HOME ALONEs, and the first two HARRY POTTER movies, would be writing and directing FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S.
At least half of the Columbus news is no longer true, as the app game's creator Scott Cawthon has revealed to fans that he recently finished writing the first draft of the film's script with Kira Breed-Wrisley, an author he has also written three FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S novels with.
I’ve been working with Kira (my co-writer on the books) over the last several months working up a first draft for the movie script. As I mentioned in my interview with Dawko, many people have attempted (but none have succeeded) making something I was really happy with. It’s difficult to write a script for this. I even wrote two full scripts myself that were not great, but they had a lot of good elements which I was finally able to put to use in the most recent version. On that note, I’m happy to announce that the first draft of Five Nights at Freddy’s is finished! Jason Blum read it and thought it was great, although it will still need some work. The important thing, however, is that we've got a story! It will focus on the setting and events of the first game, while the second movie (if we get to make one) would be based on the second game, etc.
I’ve also been rolling around the idea in my head of going ahead and writing a draft for a second and third movie while everyone else is busy with the first, just to make sure that there is a solid story to be told, even if they never get made.
In case you're not familiar with FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S, the game centers on
a security guard battling animatronic robots that come to life in a Chuck E. Cheese-like venue.
Hopefully this project will get rolling soon, because the concept of the game sounds like it could make for a fun movie. I'm totally on board to watch a person fight rampaging animatronics in live action.
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