How Can We Make a Live Action 'Five Nights at Freddy's'?

If you have yet to hear of the indie horror trilogy that has had a large population of America in awe, then I suggest you hop onto Youtube and watch some of the videos that Youtuber's are posting everyday of the game, immediately.

You will be in shock from the jump scares, and amount of mystery involved in these games.

The game centers around a night guard attempting to finish his shift at a pizzeria, while being attacked by animatronics that are possessed by the souls of dead children, who were murdered by someone simply known as the Purple Man.

The creator of the games Scott Cawthon did an amazing job at making this simple point-and-click game, a pop culture phenomenon. The lore and and storyline behind these games is some of the best I have ever seen from a horror genre. It has a storyline so diverse, that most of it is still up for debate among fans.

Now that "Five Night's at Freddy's" has seemingly reached its conclusion from the third installment, many loyal fans are becoming interested in a live action adaptation.

There are three possibilities at a live action "Five Night's at Freddy's." A Movie, TV Show, or TV Mini-series.

Movie:

The problem with making a full length movie out of this property, is that the FNAF storyline is so complicated and diverse, that it would make it hard to do the storyline justice In just a two hour movie.

A simple answer to this problem is to use sequels to progress the storyline along. Horror franchises are notorious for creating multiple saturated sequels like Halloween or Friday the 13th. While I believe FNAF has enough potential to separate itself from this pack and evolve the horror genre, it still something Scott Cawthon and producers should be cautious of.

It would be a shame to see this property get saturated down like many horror movies have.

If they could make a successful film trilogy where the first film would work its way through the story of how the children possessed the anamatronics, and into the events of "Five Night's at Freddy's 2."

Then the second film would follow the events between FNAF 2 and FNAF 1 along with the events of the original game and Mike Schmidt. Maybe Schmidt is an undercover FBI agent investigating the restaurant like many fans have speculated.

WARNING SPOILERS FOR FNAF 3 AHEAD.

Then the third and final installment would finally lead us into the events of FNAF 3 and a horror attraction based off the murder mythos of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.

Here the Purple Guy who's evil spirit is inhabiting the suit of Golden Bonnie or "Springtrap," is haunting another security guard, until an unexplained fire occurs and finally destroys Springtrap and the children's spirits are at peace.

TV Series:

The FNAF storyline is long enough to progress through a multiple season TV series. The storyline itself covers over a 30 year span.

Could the time jumps that take place between restaurant locations make it hard to translate to TV?

In order to create a TV series around FNAF, many liberties would have to take place. More than likely including possibly getting rid of the four total restaurants that were built, in order to keep the storyline close and easier to follow, season by season. Maybe only having one restaurant or at the most two.

Maybe the series could follow a character (possibly Mike Schmidt) as they attempt to solve the murders of five children in Freddy Fazbear's Pizza; trying to stop the Purple Man while also trying to keep people safe from the possessed animatronics.

Mini-Series:

A 20 episode mini-series could also be a good idea. If a movie is too short to fit in all the FNAF lore, and a TV show is too long and would draw out the storyline, maybe this is the perfect middle.

The mini-series would follow the same plot as the idea for the TV series, but condense it into 20 episodes in order to fit the whole story in, as well as not prolong it.

Conclusion:

There are advantages and disadvantages to either of the three options, but it is safe to say that the fan base wants a live action adaptation. While the games were great, people still would like to have a true canon storyline.

Any live action adaptation of a book or video game is going to have liberties taken, but as long as the general plot remains the same, it would be hard to imagine any production company being able to ruin it.

Perhaps Scott Cawthon has no desire the cash in on his success, and would just prefer to keep his games as games.

Whether a live action adaptation or more games are on the horizon; many fans appreciate the hard work Scott Cawthon has put into these games, and the lore that comes with them.