Chris Columbus has signed on to write, direct and produce Blumhouse’s screen adaptation of Scott Cawthon’s popular video game Five Nights at Freddy’s, which centers on a security guard battling animatronic robots that come to life in a Chuck E. Cheese-like venue.

Blumhouse landed Five Nights at Freddy’s last March when movie rights were put in turnaround by New Line. Every genre filmmaker wanted it, but Blumhouse landed the property because producer Jason Blum won the allegiance of creator Cawthon. Columbus is repped by WME.

A horror movie based on the wildly popular “Five Nights at Freddy’s” video game franchise is in the works for Blumhouse in collaboration with the game’s creator Scott Cawthon.

The studio has tapped Emma Tammi (“The Wind,” “Blood Moon”) to direct the “Five Night’s at Freddy’s” film, which according to an official synopsis 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.

And bringing the terrifying animatronic characters to life for the film is none other than Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, which will work alongside Blumhouse on the film. In fact, work on the animatronics has already begun ahead of the studio planning an early 2023 production start for “Five Nights at Freddy’s.”

Jim Henson’s Creature Shop will be working alongside Blumhouse to bring the game’s favorite animatronics to life. The innovative Oscar and Emmy-winning effects shop has already begun working on the animatronics in preparation for an early 2023 production start.

Cawthon, Tammi and Seth Cuddeback together wrote the screenplay for “Five Nights at Freddy’s.” The film will be produced by Blumhouse in association with Striker Entertainment. Scott Cawthon and Jason Blum will produce the film. Russell Binder is an executive producer.

The FNaF games are a series of point and click survivor horror games. Players must survive five nights while working as an evening security guard while aiming to avoid the shifting eyes of creepy and hostile animatronic animals that will pounce if they spot you getting out of line. Players can utilize security cameras, lights, air vents and other tools to avoid capture.

The games now span nine games in the main franchise alongside numerous other spinoff games and forms of media. “Five Nights at Freddy’s” exploded in popularity after the release of the first game from 2014 after YouTube and video game streamers such as PewDiePie, Markiplier and Jacksepticeye, among others, found viral attention streaming their play throughs of the game, complete with teens posting their ludicrous reactions to the game’s many jump scares upon being captured.

A film adaptation of “Five Nights at Freddy’s” has been trying to get off the ground for years, dating back as far as 2015 when Warner Bros. had acquired the adaptation rights. But Cawthon has revealed over the years that the film had gone through numerous script issues, and directors such as Chris Columbus have come and gone from the project. But speculation started running rampant back in August when Blum had tweeted that he would be working with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop at the time for an unspecified projecet.

“In meeting with Emma, I felt she had a great understanding of the franchise, and really felt that she could craft something that would please the fanbase and keep people on the edge of their seats,” Scott Cawthon said in a statement about the film.

When the night shift starts, the nightmare begins. In Theaters and streaming on Peacock October 27.

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.