A ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ Film Is in the Works

Ben Silverman
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Your darkest animatronic nightmares are headed to the silver screen.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. has picked up the rights to the wildly popular frightfest Five Nights at Freddy’s. No writer or director has been attached to it yet, though producers Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg of KatzSmith Productions are on the prowl.

The work of independent game maker Scott Cawthon, Five Nights drops players into the security booth of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a Chuck E. Cheese knockoff featuring a delightful band of animatronic animals. Delightful during the day, that is. At night, the robots roam the restaurant looking for something to kill. Your job? Survive five nights by using security cameras to keep an eye on the furry evildoers, which, thanks to a shaky electrical grid, is harder than it sounds.

First released in 2014, the original game was a smash hit on the PC thanks to a wealth of hilarious YouTube videos of people playing and getting freaked out. It eventually found its way to iOS and Android devices, followed by two sequels.

So what’s the movie about, other than lots of jump scares? No one’s quite sure yet.

“We’re looking forward to working with Scott to make an insane, terrifying and weirdly adorable movie,” Grahame-Smith told the Reporter.

It’s just the latest in a series of somewhat baffling video game film adaptations. Movies based on Space Invaders, Tetris, and even Asteroids have been announced in the past few years as film studios try to cash in on old, durable game brands.

Five Nights is hardly that, but at least it’s got a plot beyond ‘shoot giant space rocks.’ Plus it’s got bunnies. Everyone loves big-screen bunnies, right?

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