Well, this is interesting. I’m sure most of you who grew up in the 90s are familiar with the ever-popular junior horror novels “Goosebumps” by R.L. Stine, which were further adapted into a kids TV series. Writers Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander have been negotiating with Columbia Pictures to write a live-action big screen adaption of the series. Neal Moritz and his Sony-based Original Film will be producing with Deborah Forte of Scholastic Entertainment.
Columbia Pictures, which acquired the rights back in May, has stated that it’s open to the possiblity of developing a future franchise for the series. Like the Harry Potter films, Neal Moritz wants to cast children as the leads with a more well-known supporting cast.
Whether this is good news or not, I’m just hoping this is not another movie where they simply stamp a popular franchise name on it, without it ever having to do with the franchise in the first place - like that craptacular sad excuse for a Final Fantasy film we got as The Spirits Within. My question is how they’re going to present this as an actual “Goosebumps” movie, as I doubt they’ll choose one of several books to adapt, but rather tell a completely new story. Personally, I’d want a brand new story that evidently exists in the “Goosebumps” world, making references here and there from some of the more popular books - how about an Amaz-O magic show poster or a Slappy dummy hanging outside of a trash bin? And as cheesy as it sounds (hey, this was the early 90s), I can already predict we’ll have a slew of posters with the slogan, “Viewer beware, you’re in for a scare!” Mwahahaha.
