Guillermo Del Toro’s ‘Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark’ Movie Begins Shooting This Summer
Guillermo del Toro andAndré Øvredal’sScary Stories to Tell in the Darkmovie adaptation is moving forward at CBS Films and Entertainment One. The film will adaptAlvin Schwartz’s terrifying, traumatizing folklore-inspired horror stories to the big screen. TheScary Stories To Tell In The Darkmovie begins filming this summer.
When I was a kid, three of my most prized possessions were the threeScary Storiesbooks penned by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated byStephen Gammell–Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, andScary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones. The stories themselves – which were derived from folklore and urban legends – weren’tthatscary. But Gammell’s illustrations – which were highly stylized, and made use of drippy blank ink and consisted of traumatizing representations of ghosts, killers and other nefarious things – were the stuff of nightmares. Guillermo del Toro has been hoping to turnScary Storiesinto a film for a few years, and now theScary Storiesmovie is moving ahead with CBS Films and Entertainment One.
CBS Films was originally producingScary Storieson their own. Now, Entertainment One and CBS Films will co-finance the film, which del Toro will write (withDaniel&Kevin Hageman) and produce.The Autopsy of Jane DoeandTrollhunterdirector André Øvredal will helm.
The film doesn’t seem to be a direct adaptation of any of one of the stories from the books. Instead, it focuses on “group of young teens who must solve the mystery surrounding sudden and macabre deaths in their small town.” There was a story in the books calledThe Cursewhich wassort oflike this synopsis, but it appears that del Toro will merely draw upon the inspiration from the books as a whole to craft his own original story.
At one point, del Toro wasplanning to directthe film himself. Last year, however, hehanded directorialduties over to Øvredal. While I’d personally prefer to see del Toro direct this himself, Øvredal is a great horror filmmaker, responsible forTrollhunterand the spooky, atmosphericAutopsy of Jane Doe, so the movie is in good hands. “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, led by the incomparable Guillermo del Toro, is such a chillingly fun ride that it’s sure to leave audiences around the world jumping in their seats,” said Steve Bertram, eOne’s Film President.
I’m both very excited and slightly apprehensive about this project. I am a diehard fan of the books, and I’m a pretty damn big fan of del Toro. That said, the power of the books came from those creepy-as-hell illustrations from Stephen Gammell. If Øvredal and del Toro took theSin Cityapproach of using CGI backdrops to recreate the surreal, unpleasant look of Gammell’s artwork, thatcouldwork, but I have a feeling that’s not what will happen here.
Principal photography onScary Storesis expected to begin this summer in Toronto, Ontario.
