Wednesday, December 4, 2013

CBS Planning ‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’ Movie from ‘Saw’ Writers

Many a child of the 1980s and ’90s grew up reading all three installments in author Alvin Schwartz’s spooky tale literature anthology Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, which brings various creepy folklore and disturbing urban legends – with pieces of dark humor sprinkled here and there for good measure – to vivid life, in no small part thanks to the freaky black and white illustrations by Stephen Gammell (long the source of controversy among concerned parents and the American Library Association).

CBS Films has acquired a pitch for a Scary Stories movie adaptation, courtesy of Saw IV-VII, Piranha 3DD, and The Collection screenwriting duo Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton. The project already has a handful of producers and executive producers onboard, so the next step – after Dusntan and Melton finish their screenplay – will be to hire on a director, whose speciality is the macabre and supernatural (or, if not that, then someone interested in trying their hand at the horror genre).