Tim Burton Almost Made a Goosebumps Movie in the Mid '90s

Director Tim Burton almost produced a Goosebumps film based on R.L. Stine's successful book series in the mid-'90s. In 2015, Goosebumps was finally brought to the big screen featuring several well-known characters from the beloved book series, and this year the series returned to theaters with Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween.

Stine introduced young adults to the Goosebumps universe with the release of Welcome to Dead House in July 1992. The horror-based novels focused on a set of characters encountering a variety of supernatural entities, and the series would eventually spawn a television show that aired for four seasons on Fox Kids. The first live-action Goosebumps movie was released in October 2015, and Jack Black starred as an alternate version of Stine who had to stop his literary creations from overrunning a small town. Rather than focus on one particular monster from the anthology series, the film included several of Stine's creations for an on-screen spectacle. Talks of a sequel began before the film would go on to gross over $150m at the box-office.

During an interview with CinemaBlend, Stine revealed that there were plans for Tim Burton to produce a Goosebumps movie in the mid-'90s. A deal for the movie had been made with Fox, but after holding a meeting with Burton, the deal fell through and no such film ever came to the big screen. And, though fans of the series will never get to see what Burtons version of Goosebumps would have been like, Stine opened up about the project that never came to be:

"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?"

To make up for the failed feature, a TV series arrived at Fox Kids in 1995 and would serve as the first live-action version for Stine's novels. For those that grew up watching the show, it would be several decades before an actual film based on the book series would come to theaters. In 2014, production on the long overdue film began, and Sony Pictures was producing the project - which was initially scheduled for a 2016 release but was pushed up to August 7, 2015. The film starred Dylan Minnette (Don't Breathe) as Zach Cooper, a young teen upset over his move to a small town. However, he gets over his petty troubles when he falls for the girl next door, Hannah (Odeya Rush), whose father is none other than Stine. When Zach accidentally lets Stine's creations free, they set out to save their town before the creations wreak too much havoc.

Stine created a series that has managed to stay relevant for several years across several generations, and though fans can now enjoy two full feature films based on the series, it would have been interesting to see what Burton might have brought to the franchise. Considering the director's unique aesthetic, Goosebumps would have been in good - and inspired - hands with someone like Burton at the helm.

More: Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween Review - A Pretty Slappy Sequel

Source: CinemaBlend