Video game adaptations still have some way to go to achieve full legitimacy, and so far, only a few app-based titles have made the leap to bigger screens, including Angry Birds. Five Nights At Freddy's seemed set to join the annoyed avians, but it's only now seeing some real forward progress, as Chris Columbus has agreed to write, direct and produce the adaptation.
The original game, created by Scott Cawthon, takes place in a pizza restaurant. The player takes the part of a security guard, and the aim is to survive your night shift, pointing and clicking to protect yourself from attack by the pizzeria's not-so-decorative animatronic animals. Sequels have shifted the location to a theme park, and to a child's bedroom, where you have to keep checking the closets and looking under the bed.
New Line and Warner Bros. grabbed the rights back in 2014 and Gil Kenan was attached to direct, but it lingered in limbo and was put into turnaround last year. Now Blumhouse, which picked up the rights last year, has announced Columbus as the man to make it happen. And given his history with the likes of Gremlins, The Goonies and even his work launching a certain young wizard onto the screen, he feels like a man who could get this done. We'll see if it actually happens this time.
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