SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK: Guillermo Del Toro To Produce, Possibly Direct

Guillermo Del Toro slated to work on Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark. The proposed film will be an adaptation of the controversial children’s book series by author Alvin Schwartz and illustrator Stephen Gammell.

The Pacific Rim director might appear to be a funny choice for this project at first glance, but a quick look at Del Toro’s wider body of work shows nothing could be further from the truth. Having made a name for himself as the director of such noteworthy supernatural-based films as Pan’s Labyrinth, the Hellboy series, and most recently Crimson Peak, Del Toro’s involvement with CBS Films’ planned Scary Stories adaptation makes perfect sense. There is also a very good chance that Del Toro will be directing the film, and indeed, he has expressed interest in doing so, raising the likelihood of such a development even further.

Discussing the project, Variety explains:

The project is based on the trilogy of books by Alvin Schwartz, which includes illustrations by Stephen Gammell and sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. John August has written the screenplay but plot details are being kept under wraps.

Sean Daniel, Jason Brown and Elizabeth Grave are also producing.

The trilogy includes “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” (1981), “More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” (1984) and “Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones” (1991). Schwartz drew from folklore and and urban legends for content.

A generation of children grew up reading the books, all of which featured vivid and some might say inappropriate images that graphically illustrated the tales being told. As a matter of fact, many adults said just that, with concerned parents raising such an outcry that the American Library Association outright banned the series from it’s shelves numerous times. Whether Del Toro’s film adaptation will provoke as much as shock and controversy or not remains to be seen.

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Source: Variety