GOOSEBUMPS’ LONG JOURNEY TO THE SCREEN
Beloved children’s books spent years in development limbo
R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps empire finally has a movie to go along with its incredibly popular books and TV shows.
The scary thing is that the development of the film took more than two decades after a string of almost and not quite cinema launches, including a Tim Burton production that stalled early on. But the author’s relieved to say the wait was worth it.
“I am delighted with the results,” says Stine in Toronto promoting the Goosebumps movie with the three teen leads, Dylan Minnette, Ryan Lee and Odeya Rush. “It has just the right balance of what I try to do in the books of presenting horror and humour.”
In the film, two teenagers (Minnette and Lee) join forces with children’s horror author Stine (played by a bespectacled Jack Black) and his daughter (Rush). Their mission is to re-capture the writer’s demons when they miraculously escape from their books.
The 3D movie is, indeed, frightening fun as the monsters invade the small town where the kids live. That’s when Black’s version of Stine, and his teen crew, try to find a way to trick the beasts back into their publications.
Fans of the Goosebumps books will recognize many of the film ghouls, especially Slappy, the ventriloquist’s dummy, who seems to enjoy his elevated role as the evil leader.
“They pretty much covered all of the early monsters,” Stine says referring to director Rob Letterman and the four movie writers who shaped the story.
Certainly, Minnette and Lee knew most of the wretches and rascals. Besides avid Goosebumps readers, they had previous experiences acting in the Goosebumps world with roles in the Emmy-winning The Haunting Hour, the newest TV show based on the fright yarns.
“It’s really cool to be in the series, and now the movie, because it’s for a new generation of Goosebumps fans,” says Minnette who was previously best known as Clay in the Saving Grace series. “I always loved the books — they were a big part of my childhood.”
New to the milieu was Rush. But the star of young adult sci-fi flick The Giver fit in almost immediately during the Goosebumps filming in and around Atlanta, Ga. last year.
“I think the three of us had chemistry right from the beginning,” notes Lee, who had his breakout co-starring in J. J. Abrams’ sci-fi flick Super 8.
Off camera the good-natured ribbing and quasi-sibling rivalry between the three actors helped them relax with each other in scenes.
“And I have six brothers,” says Rush explaining how she coped with her co-workers’ shenanigans. “We were definitely brothers seven and eight,” confesses Minnette.
Still, they agree that the real on-set challenge was acting in sequences opposite Black without cracking up.
“I broke up so many times,” says Rush. “I found it impossible not to laugh at Jack (Black). I had to pinch myself.”
Adds Minnette: “The worst thing was that even when we were laughing Jack wasn’t laughing, so it was our fault we were ruining scenes.”
Stine didn’t have that problem when he had his cameo playing a teacher by the name of Mr. Black near the end of the film.
The movie moment is an appropriate tribute to the author who kicked off the Goosebumps phenomenon with a series of 62 kids books from 1992 to 1997, which led to the Canadian-produced, Vancouver-shot anthology TV series, and then spin offs from board games to T-shirts.
As Black’s Stine suggests in the film, he’s even out sold horror master Stephen King with more than 400 million Goosebumps books purchased worldwide.
Despite that and the success of the completed film, Stine admits to one disappointment.
“There was a monster they couldn’t get in the movie from one of my favourites, The Horror at Camp Jellyjam,” says Stine of King Jellyjam. “He was the smelliest monster — like a huge Jabba the Hutt.”
I broke so many times. I found it impossible not to laugh at Jack (Black). I had to pinch myself. ACTRESS ODEYA RUSH