Home Alone, Mrs Doubtfire and Harry Potter director, (and writer of The Goonies & Gremlins no less) Chris Columbus is heading in a slightly different direction. The filmmaker has just signed up to write, direct and produce Blumhouse’s video game adaptation, Five Nights at Freddy’s.

The series is focused on the story of a fictional restaurant named Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a pastiche of restaurants like Chuck E. Cheese’s and ShowBiz Pizza Place. The first three games involve the player working as a night security guard, in which they must utilize several tools, most notably checking security cameras, to survive against animatronic characters which become mobile and homicidal after-hours.

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The fourth game, which uses different gameplay mechanics from its predecessors, takes place in the house of a child who must defend against nightmarish versions of the animatronics by closing doors and fleeing on foot. The series consists of six games, it has also been adapted into two novels,  Five Nights at Freddy’s: The Silver Eyes and Five Nights at Freddy’s: The Twisted Ones, were released in 2015 and 2017, respectively. A guidebook for the series, Five Nights at Freddy’s: The Freddy Files, was also released in 2017.

Columbus  – who shot to fame in 1984/1985 as a director on  Gremlins and The Goonies – hasn’t been in the director’s chair since 2015’s Pixels movie. However, his producing credits can be seen in Patti Cake$, Tullulah and I Kill Giants.He has also signed up to direct Hello Ghose, Melody and Miraculous whose release dates are still to be confirmed.

Blumehouses’s Jason Blum is also set to produce alongside the game creator Scott Cawthon.