The Five Nights at Freddy's movie scrapped nine different script drafts on its way to the final product, according to creator Scott Cawthon. In 2014, Cawthon created the very first Five Nights at Freddy's video game, wherein players take on the role of a security guard at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, a shop in the vein of a Chuck E. Cheese's. At night, the animatronics within Fazbear's come to horrific life, leaving the security guard to fight off the murderous creatures. Over the years, Cawthon has overseen several other Five Nights at Freddy's games, as well as a series of companion novels.
Eager to build upon the success of the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise, Cawthon has been hard at work on a film adaptation for years now. First, the film was based at Warner Bros., but it has since switched to Blumhouse. Five Nights at Freddy's has struggled to get out of the development stage, with Cawthon announcing the script had been scrapped and restarted in 2018, and Jason Blum revealing just last week that the movie itself had been delayed due the property's convoluted story.
In regards to that complicated story, production on Five Nights at Freddy's will begin in the spring.
Unsurprisingly, Cawthon didn't reveal many details about the "Mike" draft, save for the fact that it has "the best pieces from all the previous screenplays" and is "fun, it's scary, and it has a great central story!" Based on those details alone, it certainly sounds like a promising story for the Five Nights at Freddy's movie, particularly since it apparently doesn't have all the issues of the rejected screenplays. After waiting all this time, fans might have wanted a few more teases about what the story will hold, but at least it now appears Cawthon and his team have settled on a script they feel good about.
With the screenplay finally in place and production slated to begin in the spring of next year, fans can likely expect Five Nights at Freddy's to be released in theaters sometime in 2022. That still might seem far away, but at least it's certain fans won't have to wait that long to discover the story. Presumably, Cawthon will share more details as filming gets underway, thus giving the eager Freddy's fanbase something to tide them over. Progress is finally being made on Five Nights at Freddy's, and that's a wonderful thing.
Source: Scott Cawthon/Reddit
