Screenwriter Carl Ellsworth (The Last House on the Left, Disturbia, Red Eye, Red Dawn) is carving a niche for himself writing movies about kids in jeopardy. He’s come aboard to write the screenplay for a live-action feature adaptation of the R.L. Stine book series Goosebumps for Columbia. Neal Moritz is producing through his Original Film banner with Deborah Forte of Scholastic Entertainment. Scholastic publishes the hugely popular kids’ horror books, which number in the dozens and have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide, second only to the “Harry Potter” series in total sales. Columbia picked up film rights to the series in May 2008 and is looking at a family-driven potential franchise. The property has spawned video games, TV shows, additional book series and straight-to-video films, but this would be the first big-screen treatment. Screenwriters Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander (“1408”) previously worked on adapting the material.
