That horrifying book that probably gave you nightmares as a child is being adapted into a movie to give you nightmares as an adult.
CBS films is making a Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark movie and the studio has just hired John August to write the screenplay, according to Deadline.
August is known for writing movies with Tim Burton such as Big Fish, Corpse Bride and Frankenweenie.
Last year it was reported that the movie would be written by Saw writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunston. Apparently the studio didn't like their direction though, and August will be doing a complete new draft of the screenplay. According to Deadline, August is going directly to the source material with his movie.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was a series of three horror anthology books filled with creepy stories. They were published from 1981 to 1991. The stories themselves were pretty scary for kids, but especially notable was the artwork by Stephen Gammell. The illustrations were absolutely horrifying, and the fact that they were a part of a series ostensibly for kids is pretty insane.
The movie will hopefully have a similarly strong visual style to it, and in that way August might be a strong pick. He's had experience with Tim Burton, who definitely has that creepy visual style a movie like this would need.
We're still waiting to hear about a possible director or plot of the film, but it seems natural for the movie to also be an anthology and tell a bunch of short stories just as the books did. Even though it'll probably be aimed towards a young audience like Frankenweenie, hopefully the movie will be creepy enough to scare a whole new generation of kids.
Image via Twitter from Deadline