Five Nights at Freddy’s (Film)

“I always come back…”

This article refers an upcoming or planned project for the franchise’s future.
NOTE: Anything that is added to the article without a reliable source may be removed without hesitation.

“Oh, what a pleasant surprise!”

Remain mindful that this page may contain spoilers for related material. If you are new to anything, like if you have not played the game or read the book yet, please read at your own risk!

Five Nights at Freddy’s

Theatrical Poster

Directed by

Emma Tammi

Produced by

Scott Cawthon
Russell Binder (executive producer)
Beatriz Sequeira (executive producer)
Christopher H. Warner (executive producer)

Jason BlumRussell BinderBeatriz SequeiraChristopher H. Warner

Screenplay by

Scott Cawthon
Emma Tammi
Seth Cuddeback

Based on

Five Nights at Freddy’s by Scott Cawthon

by Scott Cawthon

Starring

Josh Hutcherson
Matthew Lillard
Elizabeth Lail
Kat Conner Sterling
Piper Rubio
Mary Stuart Masterson

Music by

Tyler Bates

Cinematography

Lyn Moncrief

Production Company

Blumhouse Productions
Striker Entertainment

Striker Entertainment

Distributed by

Universal Pictures

Release Date

October 27th, 2023

Running Time

TBA

Country

United States

Language

English

MPAA Rating

TBA

Budget

$30 million[citation needed]

Box Office

TBA

“CAN YOU SURVIVE”
— Poster tagline, Five Nights at Freddy’s

Five Nights at Freddy’s is an upcoming supernatural horror film based on the video game series of the same name created by Scott Cawthon. Filming began on February 1st, 2023, with Emma Tammi directing, and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop building the film’s animatronic cast. Filming wrapped on April 3rd, 2023.

Five Nights at Freddy’s is scheduled to be released simultaneously in theatres and on Peacock in the United States by Universal Pictures on October 27th, 2023.

Synopsis

Can you survive five nights?

The terrifying horror game phenomenon becomes a blood-chilling cinematic event, as Blumhouse— the producer of M3GAN, The Black Phone and The Invisible Man— brings Five Nights at Freddy’s to the big screen.

The film follows a troubled security guard as he begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. While spending his first night on the job, he realizes the night shift at Freddy’s won’t be so easy to make it through.

The film stars Josh Hutcherson (Ultraman, The Hunger Games franchise), Elizabeth Lail (You, Mack & Rita), Piper Rubio (Holly & Ivy, Unstable), Kat Conner Sterling (We Have a Ghost, 9-1-1), with Mary Stuart Masterson (Blindspot, Fried Green Tomatoes) and Matthew Lillard (Good Girls, Scream).

Five Nights at Freddy’s is directed by Emma Tammi (The Wind, Blood Moon) and is written by Scott Cawthon, Emma Tammi and Seth Cuddeback.

The film’s iconic animatronic characters will be created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.

Five Nights at Freddy’s is produced by Jason Blum and Scott Cawthon. The film’s executive producers are Bea Sequeira, Russell Binder and Christopher H. Warner. Universal Pictures presents a Blumhouse production, in association with Striker Entertainment.[1]

Development

Warner Bros. Pictures announced in April 2015 that it had acquired the series’ film rights, with Roy Lee, David Katzenberg, and Seth Grahame-Smith scheduled to produce. Grahame-Smith said that they would collaborate with Cawthon “to make an insane, terrifying and weirdly adorable movie”.[2] In July 2015, Gil Kenan signed to direct the adaptation and co-write it with Tyler Burton Smith.[3]

In January 2017, Cawthon said that due to “problems within the movie industry as a whole”, the film “was met with several delays and roadblocks” and was “back at square one.” He promised “to be involved with the movie from day one this time.”[4][5] Cawthon tweeted a picture of a chair with the name “Freddy” with the Blumhouse Productions logo in March of that year, implying that the film has a new production company.[6][7] Producer Jason Blum confirmed the news two months later, saying that he was excited about working closely with Cawthon on the adaptation.[8] In June 2017, Kenan said that he was no longer directing the film after Warner Bros. Pictures’ turnaround.[9] It was announced in February 2018 that Chris Columbus would direct and write the film, also producing it with Blum and Cawthon.[10]

In August 2018, Cawthon announced that the script’s first draft (involving the events of the first game) was completed and a second and third film were possible.[11] That month, Blum tweeted that the film was planned for a 2020 release.[12] In November 2018, Cawthon announced that the film’s script had been scrapped and the film would be further delayed.[13] On September 2019, the script for the movie has been confirmed to be finished. In June 2020, Blum said in an interview that the film is in super active development, and that it’s moving rapidly forward, but that he doesn’t want to put a timeline on it.[14] In November 2020, Cawthon stated in a Reddit post that the screenplay had been chosen and that filming will start in Spring 2021, around March. Included was a list of scrapped screenplays with a small description of each and why they were ultimately eliminated.[15]

However, on September 29th, 2021, it was revealed in an article that the “Mike” script was scrapped, and that filming did not begin during spring of 2021 as Cawthon and Blum wanted. Therefore, it was unknown when the film would be released. However, Blum tweeted that the movie was still in production and stated that he doesn’t want to write a story that’s going to disappoint Cawthon.

In March 2022, Blum stated that news on the film is “dangerously close” and that it could release in 2023.[16]

In August 2022, Blum tweeted an image from the special effects company Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, who made the animatronic suit designs for the film.[17]

In October 2022, Blum confirmed that the FNaF Movie would start production in February 2023, with director Emma Tammi, and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop building the animatronics. Three character descriptions for Mike Schmidt, Abby Schmidt, and Vanessa Monroe were also revealed by Geek Vibes Nation, but unconfirmed as reliable information until later on.

In December 2022, Deadline revealed that Matthew Lillard and Josh Hutcherson were cast in unknown roles.[18] The following day, Dawko revealed on his St. Jude charity stream that they’d been cast as William Afton and Mike Schmidt respectively. During the same stream, Piper Rubio was revealed to be cast as Mike’s younger sister, Abby Schmidt, and Mary Stuart Masterson was revealed to have been cast as a currently unknown villain.

In January 2023, Geek Vibes Nation revealed actress Elizabeth Lail to have been cast as Vanessa. In the following months, many cast members were revealed through various official announcements, leaks, and other sources.

On February 1st, 2023, the movie officially started filming in New Orleans, Louisiana, and wrapped on April 3, 2023.

On April 5th, 2023, Blum tweeted that the FNaF movie would be released on October 27, 2023.[19]

On April 28th, 2023, YouTuber Cris Parker brought attention to an official leaked two-paragraph synopsis of the film.[20]

On May 6th, 2023, an unfinished trailer for the film was leaked by an early testing surveyor. Leaks of the trailer were taken down by Universal and Blumhouse, and Cawthon released a statement regarding the leak, praising fans who chose to not view and re-post the leaked footage.

On May 16th, 2023, Blum (along with Blumhouse Productions) tweeted out the first official poster for the FNaF movie and re-affirmed the release date to be October 27th, 2023. The poster also revealed the movie’s tagline: “CAN YOU SURVIVE”.[21] Individual posters for Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy were later tweeted out by the official Blumhouse Productions account.[22][23][24][25] On the same day, the first teaser trailer for the film was released on Blum’s Twitter page and later on the official Blumhouse YouTube channel.

Cast

Production Companies

Websites

Gallery

Official Photos

The front of Freddy Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place with Golden Freddy and Abby.

Official art tweeted by Blumhouse teasing both the FNaF movie and The Exorcist: Believer.

Poster of Freddy.

Poster of Bonnie.

Poster of Chica.

Poster of Foxy.

First social media header.

Second social media header.

Third social media header.

Five Nights At Freddy’s – Official Teaser

First teaser for the film.

Thumbnail for the teaser.

The official logo.

The Universal Pictures thumbnail for the film.

The official logo with the release date and tagline.

The teaser trailer logo.

Mike Schmidt getting stuffed into a Freddy suit.

Behind the Scenes Photos

Director’s chair with “Freddy” written on it.

A behind-the-scenes image of a Jim Henson’s Creature Shop designer creating the animatronics.

Two monitor screens showing different camera angles, each having a clapperboard with “Bad Cupcake” written on it.

The official Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place sign, which was created by Signworx LLC.

A behind-the-scenes image of Signworx LLC employees working on the sign.

Ditto.

Liam Hendrix, David Hutson, Asher Spence, and Grant Feely among other children on a bus.

Stickers given to everyone on-set by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Notice what appears to be Foxy’s eye on the top right.

Construction of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place, as found in Chalmette, Louisiana.

Ditto, but with the sign now up.

“Ice Cream Parties”, an Ice Cream Shop in a mall Mike works at prior to getting a job at Freddy’s. Note Chica’s Magic Rainbow from FNaF World on the sign.

Shooting of a scene involving Mike getting into a fight with someone in a fountain at the mall.

The film crew testing the official Freddy Fazbear costume.

Two Springtrap masks pictured from a tour at Jim Henson’s Creature shop.

Kat Conners Sterling holding a script for the film.

Inside the set of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place.

Ditto.

Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place balloon alongside a piece of Freddy’s fabric.

A stained glass featuring Foxy the Pirate.

Lucas Grant (Garrett) and Wyatt Parker (Young Mike).

A plastic cup featuring Chica the Chicken.

Unofficial placeholder poster.

A behind-the-scenes image of the set.

A behind-the-scenes image of the Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica heads.

Trivia

• The 2019 science-fiction comedy-horror film The Banana Splits Movie, based on the Hanna-Barbera TV show, is speculated to be a reworking of the original Five Nights at Freddy’s film Warner Bros. was supposed to work on before the rights went to Blumhouse Productions.
• The 2021 action-comedy horror-thriller film Willy’s Wonderland appears to have a similar plot line to the Five Nights at Freddy’s video games, but the writer and director of the film deny any resemblance.
• This film will be Blumhouse Productions’ first ever video-game film.
• On September 1st, 2020, it was revealed that Jason Blum is using MatPat’s Five Nights at Freddy’s theory videos as research for the film.
• Jason Blum claimed that it is possible that Five Nights at Freddy’s fan Jamie Lee Curtis from the Halloween franchise might be in the film.[55]
• On Jack Black’s TikTok page, he has been doing Five Nights at Freddy’s-related stuff, hinting that he might be a part of the movie.[56]
  • He and his son also played Five Nights at Freddy’s 4: Halloween Update on Markiplier’s channel to celebrate the 2015 Goosebumps film, which Black starred in.
• On November 20th, 2020, Scott Cawthon made a post on the official Five Nights at Freddy’s subreddit, where he revealed that multiple screenplays were considered, as well as explaining why those screenplays were rejected.[57]
• The production code of the movie is “Bad Cupcake“.
• In an interview with Matthew Lillard, he mentioned that he made a deal with Blumhouse to produce three films, meaning two sequels will be made after the first film.
• According to the YouTuber Dolly Dachshund, who played an extra in the movie, the movie was said to be rated PG-13 on set.[58] Although, Christian Stokes tweeted shortly afterward that many things are said on set that are not final, and that nothing official has been announced.
• Shortly after being revealed to be playing young Mike, Wyatt M. Parker posted a picture of him alongside Lucas Grant captioned “Nice to see my little brother again!”. This implies that Garrett is likely the Crying Child, with Mike being the one responsible for his death during the Bite of ’83. This could explain why Mike’s description says he is “riddled with guilt over a tragedy in his past”.
• On Twitter, YouTuber FuhNaff revealed that he was being considered as Josh Hutcherson’s double for the film, but he didn’t get the role.[59]
• If the part of the trailer at 0:30-0:35 is played in reverse, the phrase “Afton killed me” can be heard repeated five times in a flustered childish voice, coming from the five victims of the missing children incident. However, this could simply be a coincidence.[60]
• The song that the animatronics are singing in the teaser is “Talking in Your Sleep” by the Romantics.

References

Five Nights at Freddy’s Movie Media

Media Content
Five Nights at Freddy’s Movie • Novelization •

Soundtrack

• Scrapped Screenplays
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