After spending a long time in development hell, a film adaptation of the Five Nights at Freddy’s video game franchise finally went into production at the start of February. Now Deadline reports that Kat Conner Sterling – whose credits include roles in Marvel’s The Gifted, Fox’s 9-1-1 and The Resident, and Netflix’s A Week Away – has been cast in the film alongside previously announced cast members Matthew Lillard (Scream), Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Game), and Mary Stuart Masterson (Benny & Joon).
The Five Nights at Freddy’s video game takes place in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a darker version of Chuck-E-Cheese, where an animatronic animal band performs kiddy songs by day, and goes on murderous rampages by night. The goal of the game is survive a night locked inside, knowing that a furry death machine might jump out of the dark at any moment.
This adaptation was originally set up at Warner Bros., where Gil Kenan (Monster House) was going to direct the film from a screenplay he was writing with Tyler Burton Smith (the Child’s Play remake). Then the project moved over to Blumhouse, where Chris Columbus (Home Alone) was attached to direct it for several years. But now it has gone into production with Emma Tammi – director of The Wind, Into the Dark: Delivered, and Into the Dark: Blood Moon – at the helm, working from a screenplay she wrote with Seth Cuddeback (Mateo) and video game creator Scott Cawthon.
Five Nights at Freddy’s is being produced by Blumhouse, in association with Striker Entertainment. Cawthon is a producer alongside Blumhouse founder Jason Blum. Russell Binder is executive producing. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop is handling the special effects that will bring the homicidal animatronic animals to life on the screen.
Are you familiar with Kat Conner Sterling’s work, and are you glad to hear that she has joined the cast of Five Nights at Freddy’s? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below. I’m not familiar with Sterling’s work or with the Five Nights at Freddy’s games, but I’m looking forward to seeing how this movie is going to turn out.