Why Five Nights At Freddy's Was An Underdog Story For Jason Blum

"Five Nights at Freddy's" is one of the true video game success stories in recent memory, with the indie series becoming an absolute phenomenon in a real grassroots sort of way. As anyone would expect, Hollywood eventually came calling to adapt the tale for the big screen. And while horror maestro Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions fame finally managed to make it happen, it was a long journey that took a full six years. And even though he's a big-shot movie producer, Blum sees this as a real underdog situation for several reasons.

Speaking with IGN in June 2023, Blum explained how he and game creator Scott Cawthon spent years developing the film, which hits theaters and Peacock this fall. "Scott had been working on it as a movie with a studio for a while and that didn't work out, this is many years ago," Blum said. "Everyone said we could never get the movie done, including, by the way, internally in my company. I was made fun of for pursuing this, this thing that could never happen, and that always lights a fire under me to say, 'I bet I can do this'." 

Why the long process? In short, it took a great deal of work to get it right — and they weren't going to do it unless it was right. As Blum explained:

"It was many, many, many years of development. I've grown to know Scott very well over that time, and I've become very fond of him. I think he's a really, really special person, a really creative person, probably more creative than he even gives himself credit for in some ways, I would say. And we had to find a structure that would work for us to make this movie together."

The long, storied journey for this movie began way back in 2015 when Warner Bros. picked up the rights to develop "Five Nights at Freddy's" as a feature. They even had heavy hitters such as Roy Lee, David Katzenberg, and Seth Grahame-Smith on board to produce. Gil Kenan ("Monster House") eventually signed on to direct. But things didn't pan out at Warner Bros.

Eventually, Blumhouse swooped in, with the studio behind "The Purge" and "Get Out" landing the rights to make the film instead in 2017. Even though Jason Blum and his low-budget horror powerhouse, which has generated more than $5 billion at the box office, seemed like the perfect fit, it wasn't exactly smooth sailing from that point on. Another director in the form of Chris Columbus ("Home Alone") came and went, while a completed version of the script was thrown out, forcing them to start over from scratch once again.

Emma Tammi ended up in the director's chair for the version that actually made it across the finish line. The screenplay, in the end, is credited to Scott Cawthon, Tammi, and Seth Cuddeback. Blum, despite the long journey, seems quite proud of what they accomplished.

"We finally found it and we finally made the movie," he said in the same interview. "And as you can hear by my voice, I'm extremely proud of the movie that we made together." 

The big question is whether or not audiences will be as excited, but that's another issue altogether. Clearly, just getting this movie into theaters was a Herculean task.

One would think that a guy with Jason Blum's pedigree could just will things into existence at this point. But in Hollywood, it's never easy, particularly in the horror space. That's another key reason why the producer felt like an underdog throughout the entire process. As Blum explained, the business, by and large, still views horror as something lesser, even if it is the most consistently reliable genre around in terms of putting meat in seats:

"I love horror movies because people who make horror movies are still ostracized a bit in Hollywood. Like, we're thought of as lesser, even though 'Get Out' made them kind of cooler. We're still not the cool kids by a long shot ... so that's why I love horror too: I love being the underdog and overcoming something. Who doesn't? It's a lot of fun."

The movie stars Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Kat Conner Sterling, Piper Rubio, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Matthew Lillard. If all goes well, there is plenty of story to mine for sequels, and if there's one thing Blumhouse does best, it's turning a single successful movie into a franchise when the occasion calls for it.

"Five Nights at Freddy's" hits theaters and arrives on Peacock on October 27, 2023.