Are you ready to spend some more time in Shadyside? Before R.L. Stine gave readers Goosebumps, he took them on a tour of Fear Street, and a film based on the teen horror book series has been in the works for quite some time, with Kyle Killen coming on board to pen a screenplay earlier this year. A new creative mind is now behind the project, though, which could become three movies instead of one.
According to THR, Leigh Janiak has been hired by 20th Century Fox and Chernin Entertainment to re-work and helm a Fear Street film, with the overall deal also reportedly calling for Janiak to work on two additional Fear Street movies, with plans to potentially even film them back-to-back-to-back.
Janiak, who at one point was set to direct The Craft reboot, but is no longer attached (according to THR), will team up with her creative collaborator Phil Graziadei to rewrite Killen's screenplay. Additionally, Janiak is currently leading something of a writers' room for all three films, with Zak Olkewicz working on the second movie and Silka Luisa developing the screenplay for the third film. THR reveals that the films will even take place in separate time periods, and it will be interesting to see if the writers tap into the haunted history of Shadyside that has been explored in Stine's works.
If all three Fear Street movies were filmed back-to-back-to-back, they could also be released back-to-back-to-back over three consecutive months, but time will tell if this bold release plan will be implemented by 20th Century Fox.
If you're a horror fan who grew up in the ’90s, there's a good chance you were at least partially raised on Stine's Fear Street books, which launched in the late ’80s before coming to a (temporary) close in the late ’90s. It was briefly resurrected in the mid-2000s as the miniseries Fear Street Nights before resuming with new novels in 2014.
Specific plot details for the Fear Street films have yet to be revealed, but with titles ranging from The New Girl to Ski Weekend to Truth or Dare and College Weekend, there is a lot of content created by Stine for Janiak and her team to dig into. Compared to the Goosebumps books (which did feature some dark storylines in their own right, including Welcome to Dead House), Stine had an even bigger sandbox to play in with the Fear Street novels, which were aimed at older teen readers and frequently incorporated grisly murders throughout their twisty, page-turning plots.
Janiak is no stranger to the horror genre, having directed the acclaimed 2014 horror film Honeymoon, as well as two episodes of MTV's Scream: The TV Series and an episode of Cinemax's Outcast.
Which Fear Street novels would you like to see come to life on the big screen? Let us know and stay tuned to Daily Dead for more updates.
Leigh Janiak:
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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