More than six years have gone by since it was announced that director André Øvredal and producer Guillermo del Toro were re-teaming for a sequel to their cinematic adaptation of Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series of books. Over the years, Øvredal has confirmed that Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 2 was in the works and a script had been written, but the project had just been slowed down by the pandemic, the making of his other movies, and the Hollywood strikes. But the biggest problem of all is that it’s stuck in copyright ownership hell.
The film had the following synopsis: It’s 1968 in America. Change is blowing in the wind…but seemingly far removed from the unrest in the cities is the small town of Mill Valley where for generations, the shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large. It is in their mansion on the edge of town that Sarah, a young girl with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time—stories that have a way of becoming all too real for a group of teenagers who discover Sarah’s terrifying home.
It starred Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, Austin Abrams, Dean Norris, Gil Bellows, Lorraine Toussaint, Austin Zajur, and Natalie Ganzhorn.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was a box office hit, earning just under $106 million worldwide on a budget of $25 million.
The screenplay for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 2 was written by the first film’s writers Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman, working from a story crafted by del Toro. Details on the plot, and what elements the sequel would be lifting from Schwartz’s books, have never been revealed. The Hagemans also produce these movies alongside del Toro.
Released in 2019, the first film was financed by eOne and CBS Films, with Lionsgate distributing… but Hasbro bought eOne in 2019, then sold it off in 2022. Also in 2019, CBS Films was shut down after a creative shake-up at CBS. So one of the companies doesn’t exist anymore and the other has gone through some major changes.
The result, as Øvredal told Slash Film: copyright ownership hell. And eOne and CBS Films issues aren’t the only problems to work out.
Øvredal explained, “The rights spread out to two other companies, and then they have to agree to figure it out between them, and that has taken some time, but there is movement. We do have conversations about it once every couple of months, and there is currently some movement, I’m gathering. But it becomes about legal departments and not about creatives, because we have a story that I love that is just ready to go whenever somebody decides, ‘I own the movie, let’s go make it.’“
Do you want to see a Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark sequel? What do you think of the project getting bogged down in copyright ownership hell? Let us know by leaving a comment below.