The first trailer for Universal/Blumhouse’s long-in-the-works adaptation of the hit video franchise Five Nights at Freddy’s dropped this morning.
The movie follows a troubled security guard (Josh Hutcherson) as he begins watching over 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. Upping the ante is the fact that his young sister (Piper Rubio), who he brings with him to work each night, seems to be the target of a coterie of possessed animatronic animals.
Pic stars Hutcherson (Ultraman, The Hunger Games franchise), Elizabeth Lail (You, Mack & Rita), 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 is written by Scott Cawthon, Emma Tammi and Seth Cuddeback. The animatronic characters will be created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.
There have been eight games in the mainline Freddy’s franchise, the most recent being Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach in 2021. There have been six spinoff games as well as five fan-created games endorsed by Cawthon and dozens of novels and graphic novels based on the series.
Given all that IP, it’s understandable why Blumhouse — which has a long track record of success with genre franchises — would stick with a film that, seven years ago, was set to be directed by Gil Kenan (Monster House), then went to Blumhouse in 2017, with Chris Columbus tapped to direct in 2018, and now Tammi.
Five Nights at Freddy’s is produced by Jason Blum and Scott Cawthon, who created the video game franchise. The film’s executive producers are Bea Sequeira, Russell Binder and Christopher H. Warner. Universal Pictures presents a Blumhouse production, in association with Striker Entertainment.
Five Nights at Freddy’s is going theatrical day and date with Peacock on Oct. 27 this year. The pic will go wide. It’s the fourth Blumhouse movie to day and date with Universal’s streaming service after Halloween Kills, Halloween Ends, and Firestarter.