A cinematic adaptation of author Alvin Schwartz's SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK book series will soon begin filming in Toronto, so it's about time we heard some casting news for the film, which is being directed by André Øvredal and produced by Guillermo del Toro.
Teenage actress Zoe Colletti (pictured above in the short film LUCY IN THE SKY) is taking on the lead role in the film. Her character is said to be Stella Michaels,
a young girl still haunted by her mother’s disappearance on Halloween night — an incident that she suspects her father knows more about than he lets on. Years later, Stella and her friends are involved in a Halloween prank gone wrong. But are they really at fault, or was it the work of a vengeful spirit — a female ghost who uses her scary stories to come after the teens when they begin to investigate the disappearance of several children?
Del Toro wrote the screenplay with Kevin Hageman, Dan Hageman, Patrick Melton, and Marcus Dunstan. Collider has been told that Harold the human scarecrow and the girl who has spiders crawl out of her face are among the elements from Schwartz's books that will be making it onto the screen in this film.
Sean Daniel, Elizabeth Grave, and J. Miles Dale are also producing the film, which is being co-produced and co-financed by CBS Films and eOne. Lionsgate will be releasing SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK sometime in 2019.
Figuring out a way to turn a collection of stories into a film that's not an anthology seems like it would be quite a challenge to take on, but it sounds like the writers have figured out an interesting way to make this work.