André Øvredal Will Direct SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK

According to the folks over at Deadline, there's good news and bad news about CBS Films' long-gestating Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark adaptation. Bad news is, Guillermo del Toro has officially stepped aside as director on the project. The good news is, they've found one helluva replacement: The Autopsy Of Jane Doe's André Øvredal.

Frequent BMD readers know we've been a pro-The Autopsy Of Jane Doe household ever since catching the film at Fantastic Fest a few years ago, so we're thrilled to learn that Øvredal's lined up a new project (and doubly thrilled that it's this one).

Deadline's post also provides us with our first plot details:

"The thriller follows a group of young teens who must solve the mystery surrounding sudden and macabre deaths in their small town. Kevin Hageman and Dan Hageman (The Lego Movie) wrote the most recent draft based on the books."

That's...certainly not the approach we were expecting (truth be told, we'd long assumed this would be an anthology film). But, hey, if a non-anthology approach worked for Goosebumps, might as well give it a go here. All we really ask is that the creatures look like the profoundly horrific Stephen Gammell illustrations that made Alvin Schwartz' books so damn memorable. Just do that and we'll be fine with whatever else happens.

Production begins next summer. Stay tuned for more on Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark as updates become available.