'Goosebumps' TV show producers hope Stephen King is a fan
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The creators of the new Disney+ show “Goosebumps” are updating the famous ‘90s books for the current era.
“It’s a modernized version of ‘Goosebumps,’ it takes place in 2023,” executive producer Rob Letterman, who also directed the 2015 “Goosebumps” movie starring Jack Black, told The Post.
“We make nods to the 90s, when the books first came out. Those original fans who loved the books when they were kids still love them to this day. And now, they’re in their 30s and 40s. We wanted the show to appeal to not only younger audiences, but also adults — with or without kids.”
Premiering Friday, October 13 (on Disney+ and Hulu, with new episodes out weekly on Fridays), “Goosebumps,” was inspired by the spooky R.L. Stine books – which is one of the best-selling series of all time, with more than 400 million books in print, in 32 languages.
“We got [R.L. Stine’s] blessing at the beginning of it, and showed him the episodes, which he loved —thank God!” said Letterman.
“It feels good to make him proud of it. I met him [while filming] the movie, he was in it, so there was already a shorthand there with him.”
The show follows a group of five high schoolers in the small town of Port Lawrence as they unearth dark secrets linked to the tragic passing of Harold Biddle (Ben Cockell) in 1993.
There’s football star Isaiah (Zack Morris), brainy Margot (Isa Briones), ignored wallflower Isabella (Ana Yi Puig), class clown James (Miles McKenna) and skater Lucas (Will Price).
After throwing a Halloween party in the old Biddle house, these teens find themselves in nightmarish situations where they learn about each other, and their parents’ dark secrets, too. For instance, Isaiah finds a camera that develops photos that seemingly predict accidents, and James gets trapped in a time loop, thanks to a clock.
Justin Long co-stars as teacher Nathan Bratt.
“I remember the thing [R.L. Stine] would repeat to you is that in a lot of his books, the central tenant is ‘be careful what you wish for,’” executive producer Nicholas Stoller (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall”) told The Post.
“Everything that happens in the show, like in the books, is driven by these characters wishing for stuff that maybe they shouldn’t wish for. I think there’s something relatable about that.”
In the original books, the characters were often middle-school aged.
“We wanted to age it up a bit,” said Stoller.
“One of the things we’re exploring is that, when you’re a teen, you’re becoming an adult. So, we thought that making it high school aged wouldn’t affect the storytelling, except in a positive way, to dive into that theme, and age up the series a bit. From a storytelling standpoint, the kids can do stuff that they wouldn’t be able to do, if they were middle school kids. A lot of our touch stones weren’t just horror, but also the great teen stuff – the John Hughes movies, stuff like ‘Freaks and Geeks’ and ‘My So Called Life.'”
Aside from Stine, there is another horror heavyweight that they’re hoping to impress, too.
“So much of ‘Goosebumps,’ is the inspiration of Stephen King’s novels that’s accessible to a younger reader,” said Letterman.
“That’s part of the magic of those books. So [if he liked the show], that would be amazing.”
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