Jason Blum Was "Made Fun of" For Pursuing FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S Movie and He Explains The Challenges of Making It

Jason Blum picked up the rights to Scott Cawthon’s hit video game Five Nights at Freddy’s back in 2017 and the film was finally completed and will be released this year in 2023. There was a long road to developing this movie because Cawthon wanted to make sure that the film was done right. In fact, at one point he threw out the script for the film and made the writers rewrite it.

When previously talking about the film, Blum said: "That game has a rabid fan base and I would say, without Scott [Cawthon], it wouldn't make a good movie. But, I think Scott has a very clear idea of what he wants the movie to be, and I think because we're using the same creator as the game in Scott, I think there'll be a great movie." 

During a recent interview with IGN, Blum opened up about the challenges of making the film, and the development process was so ridiculous that the producer was made fun of for continuing to pursue it. But, he was willing to take on the challenge. He said:

“I really love a challenge. Scott had been working on it as a movie with a studio for a while and that didn't work out, this is many years ago. Everyone said we could never get the movie done, including, by the way, internally in my company. I was made fun of for pursuing this, this thing that could never happen, and that always lights a fire under me to say, ‘I bet I can do this’.”

When the right to make the movie was first acquired by Blumhouse, Chris Columbus was brought in to direct the movie but was soon replaced by Emma Tammi after Columbus left the project. It was explained that early on in development, one version of the screenplay was thrown out entirely because it didn’t match with game creator Scott Cawthon’s vision for the project. There came a point where it seemed like the film adaptation just wasn’t meant to be. But, the creative team eventually found a way to make it work. Blum explained:

“It was many, many, many years of development. I've grown to know Scott very well over that time, and I've become very fond of him. I think he's a really, really special person, a really creative person, probably more creative than he even gives himself credit for in some ways, I would say. And we had to find a structure that would work for us to make this movie together.”

Blum said it took “six or seven years” to finally find that structure and story of the film, and said: “We finally found it and we finally made the movie, and as you can hear by my voice, I'm extremely proud of the movie that we made together.” He went on to talk about his love of horror movies, saying:

“I love horror movies because people who make horror movies are still ostracized a bit in Hollywood,” he explained. “Like, we’re thought of as lesser, even though Get Out made them kind of cooler. We're still not the cool kids by a long shot… so that's why I love horror too: I love being the underdog and overcoming something. Who doesn't? It's a lot of fun.”

I’m excited to see what they’ve come up with. I liked the trailer that was released, and it’s going to be interesting to see if all that work that they put into the project was worth it.

The film follows “a troubled security guard as he begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. While spending his first night on the job, he realizes the night shift at Freddy’s won’t be so easy to make it through.” You see, there are ghost children who are possing giant animatronics that are out to terrorize.

The film stars Josh Hutcherson (Ultraman, The Hunger Games), Elizabeth Lail (You, Mack & Rita), Piper Rubio (Holly & Ivy, Unstable), Kat Conner Sterling (We Have a Ghost, 9-1-1), with Mary Stuart Masterson (Blindspot, Fried Green Tomatoes) and Matthew Lillard (Good Girls, Scream). 

Five Nights at Freddy’s is directed by Emma Tammi (The Wind, Blood Moon) and she wrote the script with Scott Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback.

On top of that the animatronic characters were created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, which is a fun bonus! Blumhouse is the production company behind M3GAN, The Black Phone, and The Invisible Man and it looks like they did a good job with this one!

The movie will be released on October 27th.