Eager to strike while the iron is still piping hot, 20th Century Fox and Chernin Entertainment have snapped up the rights to R.L. Stine’s long-running novel series Fear Street, The Wrap reports.
News comes on the eve of Sony’s Goosebumps looming into theaters, and Fox is clearly keen to jump on the horror bandwagon, possibly laying the groundwork for its own franchise. Speaking about the acquisition, Stine revealed: “I’m not allowed to say, but yeah, there’s something happening,” he told the outlet. “I’m usually a loose cannon but they really didn’t want me to talk about it.”
Situated in the fictional town of Shadyside, Ohio, Fear Street is a said to tailored for a teenage audience, with some canonical entires sharing similarities with the supernatural activity of Goosebumps. What really separates the two, though, is that the events that unfold in Shadyside are slightly more violent, foregoing the camp tone that defines Goosebumps.
Indeed, Fear Street even predates Stine’s flagship franchise, with the reputable scribe releasing his first entry in the canon back in 1989. From there, the IP has spawned a bona fide juggernaut in the literary space, outgrowing Goosebumps to encompass over 100 titles and numerous spinoffs, though the series as a whole saw its popularity wane at the turn of the millennium.
Considering that the Goosebumps license was first picked up by Colombia Pictures in 2008, it could be some time yet before Fear Street hits theaters. Nostalgia is fast becoming a lucrative market across cinema and television, and we’re sure that Fox’s series can find an audience in the wake of the Jack Black-led Goosebumps.
We’ll keep you posted on the status of Fox’s newly-acquired Fear Street series as this story develops. Goosebumps, meanwhile, opens in theaters on Friday, October 16.