>>60715074In April 2015, Warner Bros. Pictures announced it had acquired the film rights to the Five Nights at Freddy's video game franchise with Roy Lee, David Katzenberg, and Seth Grahame-Smith set to produce the adaptation. Grahame-Smith stated that they would collaborate with franchise creator Scott Cawthon "to make an insane, terrifying and weirdly adorable movie".[10] In July 2015, Gil Kenan signed to direct the film from a screenplay co-written with Tyler Burton Smith.[11]
In March 2017, Cawthon tweeted announcing Blumhouse Productions as the film's new production company after Warner Bros. Pictures put the project in turnaround.[12] In May 2017, producer Jason Blum said he was excited and working closely with Cawthon on the film.[13] In June 2017, Kenan said he was no longer directing the film.[14]
In February 2018, Chris Columbus was announced as Kenan's replacement as director and writer, besides producing the film alongside Blum and Cawthon.[15] In August 2018, Cawthon revealed that the first draft of the film's script, which he wrote with co-author of the Five Nights at Freddy's novel trilogy, Kira Breed-Wrisley, was completed, and it would involve the events of the series' first game.[16] That same month, Blum wrote on Twitter that the film was aiming for a 2020 release.[17] In November, Cawthon announced that he scrapped the script, despite being liked by Columbus and Blum, as he "had a different idea for [the story], one that I liked better". It contributed to a further delay to the film, for which Cawthon took full responsibility.[18] In June 2020, during an interview with Fandom, Blum, when asked about the progress of the film, stated:
"It's super active, so I really feel like we have a very good shot at seeing a Five Nights at Freddy's movie...I feel like it's really moving forward; it's not stalled or anything else. It's moving forward rapidly. I don't want to put a timeline on it, but soon we'll get a movie. I feel really confident about that."[19]
In September 2021, Blum revealed that Columbus was no longer involved with the project, but it was still in active development.[20] In August 2022, Blum announced that Jim Henson's Creature Shop would be working on the animatronic characters for the film.[21] In October, Emma Tammi was announced as Columbus' replacement as director, in addition to co-writing the screenplay alongside Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback.[22]
