In Goosebumps, teenager Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette), upset about moving from a big city to a small town, finds a silver lining when he meets the beautiful girl, Hannah (Odeya Rush), living right next door, and makes a quick friend in Champ (Ryan Lee). But every silver lining has a cloud, and Zach’s comes when he learns that Hannah’s mysterious dad is in fact R.L. Stine (Jack Black), the author of the bestselling Goosebumps series. As Zach starts learning about the strange family next door, he soon discovers that Stine holds a dangerous secret: the creatures that his stories made famous are real, and Stine protects his readers by keeping them locked up in their books. When Stine’s creations are unintentionally released from their manuscripts, Zach’s life takes a turn for the weird. In a crazy night of adventure, it’s up to Zach, Hannah, Champ, and Stine to team up and get all of these figments of Stine’s imagination – including Slappy the Dummy, the girl with the haunted mask, the gnomes and many more – back in the books where they belong to save the town.
My family previewed the movie on Sunday evening. After Paul and I had the good fortune to sit in on a panel at Comic Con with R.L. Stine himself!
R. L. Stine was hilarious on the panel, I had no idea this Goosebumps author had such a great sense of humor. He had the audience laughing almost every time he spoke. He shared that when they were casting the movie he heard from a lot of folks on social media saying that he should play himself. So he asked his wife what she thought. “You are too old,” she put it bluntly. But, spoiler alert, Mr Stine is in the movie, and he crosses paths with himself so to speak, in a very funny bit, at the end of the movie.
And he shared, his only rule for adaptations is that there must be a mix of horror and humor. This was reiterated in the interviews I attended with the cast at AOL Build where Director Rob Letterman said there was no blood in this movie. There were some scary moments, but this “horror” movie should be great for anyone over seven years old!
This is one busy cast! They have been introducing the movie at previews all over NY, including the show we attended, and also doing a lot of press. They were a great group, and I am so happy I got to see them, and to experience Jack Black’s sense of humor in person. It is no secret, he is a master of comedy, everything he says is smart and funny. His portrayal is of a more sinister R.L. Stine, and as serious as this character is, he is still funny!
And the movie is terrific. I cannot recommend it enough! It is the culmination of years of R.L. Stine books, an homage to his work, on the big screen! Only a little scary, yet very funny. Fast paced, and engrossing. Go see it!
Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation present in association with LStar Capital and Village Roadshow Pictures, an Original Film / Scholastic Entertainment Inc. production, Goosebumps. Starring Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Amy Ryan, Ryan Lee, and Jillian Bell. Directed by Rob Letterman. Produced by Deborah Forte and Neal H. Moritz. Screenplay by Darren Lemke. Story by Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski. Based on The Goosebumps Books written by R.L. Stine. Executive Producers are Tania Landau, Bill Bannerman, Ben Waisbren, Bruce Berman, and Greg Basser. Director of Photography is Javier Aguirresarobe, ASC. Production Designer is Sean Haworth. Editor is Jim May, ACE. Costume Designer is Judianna Makovsky. Music by Danny Elfman.
Goosebumps has been rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for scary and intense creature action and images, and for some rude humor.We love rude humor!
The film will be released in theaters nationwide on October 16th, 2015.
Spoiler alert – look for the Jack Black/ Gulliver’s Travels homage as well!
Disclosure: We received complimentary tickets to preview the movie. All opinions are 100% honest and our own.
Awesome! too bad he wasn’t there on thursday i missed him! Goosebumps were my go to books growing up can’t wait to see this with my kids!