So when the game was optioned and set to be turned into a major movie, it was only natural that Cawthon wanted to be involved in almost every aspect of the production.
“There is no amount of money you could have offered Scott up front to say, ‘Let us have the rights to FNaF and we’ll invite you to the premiere,’” said Jason Blum, the producer of the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie, which comes out in theaters and on Peacock this week. “He would never, ever have done it.”
Scott Cawthon, the game’s creator, was heavily involved with the writing and casting of “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” which opens this week.
It is unusual for an artist without experience in the movie business to be so involved in an adaptation of his work. And Blum acknowledged that Cawthon’s involvement, in everything from casting the characters to co-writing the script, led to creative disagreements with the studio.
“It was a very, very complicated process,” Blum said. “Sometimes it was difficult. Scott would say this director isn’t going to work or that writer isn’t going to work.”
He accommodated Cawthon’s vision partly because he believed in it. But Blum, who called Cawthon a genius, said he had also sensed that in important creative matters, he did not really have a choice.
“It became clear that if I pushed it,” Blum said, “he was going to throw me off the movie, too.”