Five Nights at Freddy's director reveals how game creator influenced film
Emma Tammi explains how Scott Cawthon helped "guide elements of the lore" to ensure the film was "right for the fan base".
Nine years after the first game was launched – and eight years since a big screen adaptation was originally announced – a Five Nights at Freddy's film finally arrives in UK cinemas this week.
The film is produced by Jason Blum and directed by Emma Tammi, with Josh Hutcherson starring as a stressed-out security guard who discovers that the abandoned novelty restaurant he's been assigned to contains a few deeply disturbing animatronic secrets.
Game creator Scott Cawthon was on board the film as both a producer and co-screenwriter, and Tammi and Blum explained to RadioTimes.com how his input ensured the film would be well-received by existing fans of the franchise.
“I think between myself and Jason, we were always consulting Scott in terms of what the path forward was," Tammi said during an exclusive interview, adding: "For Jason, in the earlier stages, even just bringing on the right director and putting together the right team and, for me, crafting this story with Scott and working on the script and film.
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"So I think really leaning on him to help guide the elements of the lore that we were incorporating and making sure we were getting it right for the fan base."
Meanwhile, Blum explained how he had first learned about Five Nights at Freddy's from comic-book creator Todd McFarlane, who handles merchandising for the game.
"He really gave me an insight into the incredible reach of the game," he said. "And then I started looking into it and realised it had been developed at Warner Brothers for a little bit.
"And so I always liked the challenge of, like, 'someone else tried this and couldn't figure it out', so I was excited to see if I could. [But] I didn't think it would take eight years or 10 years, whatever it took!"
He added that the process was both "very challenging" and "very fun", and that finding the right director was key.
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"I really give Emma a lot of credit for getting us to the finish line here," he said. "We had to find someone who had their own vision and also could listen to and understand Scott's vision."
He added: "And that's a very... Scott didn't want someone who just did exactly what he said. But he also didn't want someone who didn't listen to him.
"So it was a very, very tricky thing to do. And Emma I think did a great job, getting Scott comfortable enough to actually allow the movie to happen."
Five Nights at Freddy's is now showing in UK cinemas. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.
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Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
