We've gotten so used to movies being handed off from studios to streaming services that we can almost imagine something out of a Dickensian novel, with the huddled, worried cine-kids left at the door, while their corporate parent bellows, "Mr. Sarandos will take guardianship of you now!" Before adding, "driver, away!" and the all they remember of their parents is a carriage speeding off. Anyway, we digress. The news is that Netflix is taking over the Fear Street trilogy of films from Disney.
The trilogy, adapted from Goosebumps creator RL Stine's series of books, were developed by Peter Chernin's company for 20th Century Fox, back in the distant days of 2015, when there was a 20th Century Fox. Honeymoon director Leigh Janiak was brought aboard to co-write the movies and bring them to life. They're in post-production now and the original plan had been for Fox to release them. But a combo of the Disney deal, closed cinemas because of the pandemic and a thought that the stories might be too scary for the younger Mouse House crowd has scuttled that idea. The films' story starts in 1994, where a group of teens find out that a terrifying series of events in their hometown of Shadyside, Ohio, might be connected. Worse, the teens might be next up as targets. The films cover three different time periods, including the 1600s.
So now, producers Chernin Entertainment have made a deal with Netflix to take on the films and release them a month apart next summer, as part of an event called The Summer Of Fear. Because this summer has been all about puppies and rainbows.