The Lego Movie writers to pen Guillermo Del Toro’s Scary Stories

Guillermo Del Toro has recruited a couple of new writers for his SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK movie. Del Toro is developing the film as a potential directing vehicle, and THR has learned that THE LEGO MOVIE and HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA scribes Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman will adapt Alvin Schwartz's trilogy of spooky tales for the big screen with the filmmaker. Previous drafts of the script were written by SAW's Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, and (most recently) BIG FISH's John August.

Del Toro previously worked with the duo on his upcoming animated Netflix series Trollhunters, and in a statement, he said, "I have had such a great time working with the Hagemans on Trollhunters — and they have proven to be such brilliant writers — that the fit for this material was just perfect: they grew up with the books, they love the genre and they are smart and emotional when writing characters."

Schwartz's collections of short stories have often been banned from elementary school libraries, mostly because of the fantastically creepy illustrations by Stephen Gammell, however publishers replaced Gammell's artwork with lamer tamer drawings for the more recent editions of the books. But I have a feeling Del Toro knows that Gammell's illustrations are the main reason why so many of us remember the books, and I'm hopeful that his disturbing drawings will have a strong influence on the overall look of the movie.

Stephen Gammell Compilation by ColinMartinPWherman