‘Goosebumps’ Scares Up a Director

Based on the long-running and best-selling young adult book series by R.L. Stine, 'Goosebumps' has been in development as a film for about five years, and it's finally found a director in Rob Letterman.

According to Deadline, producer Neal Moritz and his Original Film production company (in association with Scholastic, of course) have finally made some progress on the 'Goosebumps' movie. Originally announced back in 2008, the plan to bring the young adult fiction series to the big screen hasn't been moving along so quickly. With a script (presumably) locked or at least close to locked, a director has been found: Rob Letterman, who previously helmed 'Monsters vs. Aliens' and 'Gulliver's Travels,' so at least he has those juvenile sensibilities down.

The 'Goosebumps' adaptation has quite a history over the last five years. First, Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander ('1408') were brought on to write the screenplay, and then Carl Ellsworth ('Disturbia') took a crack at it in 2010, before writing duties were once again shifted to Darren Lemke ('Jack the Giant Killer') in 2012. All of these writers have previously penned screenplays that are thematically and tonally in keeping with the franchise -- '1408' is a nice little ghost story, 'Disturbia' features a teenager trying to spy on a supposed murderer next door, and 'Jack the Giant Killer' has the adventurous elements one finds in the 'Goosebumps' series, though of the three, that last one probably makes the least amount of sense.

The 'Goosebumps' book series, written by R.L. Stine, has sold over 300 million copies worldwide, making it second only to the Harry Potter series. Many of the books are tween staples, including classics like "One Day at Horrorland," "The Haunted Mask," and "Say Cheese and Die." The stories have a very specific spooky tone with a fun, adventurous spirit, so here's to hoping they really hit it out of the park with this one.