Fear Street (Trilogy Releases - July 2, July 9 and July 16, 2021 @ Netflix)

Netflix has bought a trilogy of “Fear Street” movies, based on R.L. Stine’s teen horror series and directed by Leigh Janiak, from Disney.

The three completed films were produced at Fox by Chernin Entertainment with the goal of releasing each movie a month apart. Filming began last year in Georgia and they were scheduled for a release in June 2020, but the movies were pulled from their schedule after the COVID-19 pandemic closed theaters.

Chernin signed a first-look deal with Netflix in April. Disney absorbed the Fox feature film assets last year, including “Fear Street.”

The “Fear Street” books are set in the fictional city of Shadyside, Ohio. The first book, “The New Girl,” was published in 1989 and centered on a high school student falling in love with the new girl at school despite not being able to tell if she was even real. The student eventually goes to her home — conveniently located on Fear Street — only to be told by her brother that she’s in fact dead.

The films cover three different time periods, including the 1600s. The cast includes Kiana Madeira, Olivia Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr., Ashley Zukerman, Fred Hechinger, Julia Rehwald and Jeremy Ford. Janiak made her feature directorial debut with 2014’s horror film “Honeymoon,” in which a newlywed couple finds their honeymoon descend into chaos.

Netflix has become the leading buyer of finished films in Hollywood at a time of uncertainty about whether moviegoers will return to brick-and-mortar theaters as the pandemic persists. The streamer has been in talks recently to buy the Amy Adams thriller “The Woman in the Window,” another Disney high-profile property that was developed at Fox. From Paramount, Netflix has acquired “SpongeBob: Sponge on the Run”; Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae’s romantic comedy “The Lovebirds;” Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7;” and Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated “The Irishman.”

The news about “Fear Street” was first reported by Deadline.

Tyger wrote:I remember reading those after Goosebumps