Following the merger of Disney and Fox, the fate of the Fear Street film trilogy based on R.L. Stine’s novels of the same name were left up in the air and now Deadline has brought word that they have all been acquired by Netflix for 2021 releases!
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When the merger between the two studios got underway, financier Chernin Entertainment exited its deal with Fox to distribute the films, with the production house signing a first-look deal with Netflix in April that has resulted in the streaming platform acquiring the rights to the trilogy as Chernin’s Peter Chernin and Jenno Topping found its unique release model to be of interest for bringing the films to audiences.
All three films have been directed by Leigh Janiak, a relative newcomer whose most noteworthy credits are two episodes of MTV’s Scream series and the indie horror film Honeymoon, which starred Game of Thrones star Rose Leslie, and sources report that she has wrapped all three films. Netflix is reportedly eying to release all three films in the summer of 2021, with one film each month in a new marketing event the streaming platform is calling The Summer of Fear.
Click here to purchase the original novel in R.L. Stine’s series, “The New Girl”!
With a script penned by Kyle Killen, the story is said to focus on a group of teens in 1994 who learn that a terrifying series of events in their town of Shadyside, Ohio may be connected and that they themselves may be the next targets. The trilogy is set to cover three different time periods, going all the way back to the 1600s. The Fear Street trilogy first hit shelves back in 1989 and featured a group of teenagers who dealt with supernatural—and often violent—threats to their small town of Shadyside.
The horror trilogy will star Gillian Jacobs (Love, Community), Sadie Sink (Stranger Things), Ashley Zukerman (The Wind), Fred Hechinger (Eighth Grade), Julia Rehwald (Panic), Jeremy Ford (A Mother’s Sacrifice), Kiana Madeira (Sacred Lies), Emily Rudd (The Romanoffs), Ryan Simpkins (The House), McCabe Slye (Destroyer) and Olivia Welch (Modern Family).
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Along with penning Fear Street, Stine is most frequently known for his series of children’s horror novels Goosebumps, which has been adapted for the screen a few times. Its first adaptation was a show of the same name which ran in the mid to late 1990s. More recently, the series has been reimagined for the silver screen. The first Goosebumps film hit theaters in 2015 and starred Jack Black (School of Rock) as Stine himself. The sequel, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, was released in 2018 and featured a mostly-new cast of characters.
