A ‘Goosebumps’ Movie Was Once Planned With Tim Burton Attached, According To Creator R.L. Stine

R.L. Stine is probably best known for his work as the author of the Goosebumps series, a horror book series for children that was released in the 1990s. Stine also published a young adult series called Fear Street. From 1992 until 1997, 62 novels were released for the Goosebumps series.

According to a recent interview with R.L. Stine in Cinemablend, a movie was in the works in either 1994 or 1995. While he wasn’t sure on the specifics of the time period, Stine recalls meeting with filmmaker Tim Burton about the prospect of making a Goosebumps feature film. Ultimately, nothing ever materialized.

“We had a movie deal to do a Goosebumps movie, and I can’t tell you what year it was. It was like at the height of Goosebumps, back in ’94, ’95, around there, and we actually had a deal with Fox to do a movie, and Tim Burton who was going to be the producer. We had a big meeting, and I thought, ‘Oh, that’ll be great. Tim Burton and Goosebumps. It’ll be great.’ And we had a nice meeting with him, and we had a great time and we talked about what we should do, and then nothing happened. Sort of a typical story out there, right?”

It turns out that Burton became wrapped up in filming Superman Reborn, which would have starred Nicolas Cage. Burton never finished making the aforementioned Superman movie either.

The book series did not receive a feature film treatment until approximately 20 years later when Goosebumps was released to theaters in 2015, starring Jack Black in the role of R.L. Stine. In 2018 a sequel was released, titled Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween. The film is coming to home video on December 18 and features Black reprising his role as Stein. Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween received mixed reviews from critics but managed to make a profit at the box office, taking approximately $94 million at the box office on a reported budget of $35 million.

R.L. Stine Reflects On the ‘Goosebumps’ Movie That Tim Burton Almost Produced in the ’90s https://t.co/B6C4lyCGJA

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While Goosebumps didn’t receive a feature film treatment in the 1990s, it did spawn a popular television series which aired on Fox.

The first book in the series was titled Welcome to Dead House and was released in 1992. Since then the series spawned a number of series including Give Yourself Goosebumps, Goosebumps Series 2000, Tales To Give You Goosebumps, Goosebumps Horrorland, and Goosebumps Most Wanted.

The series ultimately went on to sell more than 400 million books worldwide and has been translated into more than 30 languages.