The Five Nights at Freddy's film has been in development for quite some time, and now Jason Blum has teased a glimpse at some of the work being done by Jim Henson's Creature Shop.
Creator Scott Cawthon and Blumhouse Productions have been teamed on the Five Nights at Freddy's film for a while, and producer and studio head Jason Blum has been more than upfront about how difficult it has been to get the story right. However, things seem to be moving forward as Blum shared a behind-the-scenes look at an artist at Jim Henson's Creature Shop working on what appears to be a small-scale design for the titular Freddy Fazbear.
In the tweet, Blum gushes about the involvement of the legendary creature shop, saying. "It’s great to be working with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Their experience and expertise with animatronics is absolutely killer!” With a pun and a first look at the process going on behind the scenes, Five Nights at Freddy's fans are already clamoring for more. The image shows a creature creator from the Jim Henson Creature Shop sculpting a small-scale mock-up of what looks like a Freddy Fazbear suit on a model human. In the picture, the model is decked out in what looks like Freddy's rotund tummy, complete with a bow tie, microphone, and some partly finished feet/shoes in the frame.
News on the development of the film has been scarce and has left fans worried about the status of the project. The film initially entered development in 2015, and it hasn't exactly been smooth sailing. The tweet from the Blumhouse founder is finally confirmation that work on the project is finally underway. Plot details haven't been revealed, but it is likely that it will follow a similar thread as the games where an unwitting security guard begins working in a Chucky Cheese-style pizzeria filled with murderous animatronics and the spirits of murdered children.
The Five Nights at Freddy's games themselves unexpectedly became a huge hit upon the release of the first installment in 2014. As a new nighttime security guard at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, you have to survive five nights in the building as the animatronics inside become more and more deadly and difficult to deal with. The unique mechanics of power management combined with audio cues, scary animatronics, and jump scares led to the game becoming a huge multimedia franchise.
The world of Five Nights at Freddy's now has 14 games including spinoffs from the main series as well as books, graphic novels, and a slew of collectible merchandise. Five Nights at Freddy's creator Cawthon was involved in 9 of the games and several novels before announcing his retirement in 2021. Despite this, he still retains creative rights to the series and is involved in the upcoming feature film. No further details about the film have been released, although Blum stated in March that it could be looking at a 2023 release.
Five Nights at Freddy's is in pre-production.
Source: Jason Blum/Twitter