Books, comics and videogames are always ripe for movie adaptation, but Angry Birds aside, phone apps tend not to get the same sort of attention. So step forward Five Nights At Freddy's, which has just made the first preparatory steps in its long-jump from cell to screen. Warner Bros. have got the rights, and Gil Kenan will direct.
The original 2014 Five Nights At Freddy's game 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.
So it's a survival horror with a blackly humorous twist: one that lends itself to found footage (via the game's heavy use of security cameras) and copious jump scares.
Kenan, who made Monster House, **City Of Ember **and the Poltergeist rejig, will not only call the shots, but also write the screenplay in collaboration with Tyler Burton Smith. Seth Grahame-Smith (Pride & Prejudice & Zombies) is among the producers.