“We didn’t want to play in that same sandbox,” says Rob Letterman, describing the approach he and Nicholas Stoller took when adapting R.L. Stine’s beloved Goosebumps series for television. This bold decision to reimagine the franchise for an older audience sets the tone for their creative journey, blending humor and horror in unexpected ways.
Rob Letterman’s journey to Goosebumps began with a student film at USC that sparked his interest in visual effects. “I fell into animation doing that and writing and just struggling for a while,” he recalls. His breakthrough came with a Sundance short film in 2000, opening doors to paid writing opportunities.
Letterman’s career took an unexpected turn when his pitch for an adult-oriented animated show caught the attention of Jeffrey Katzenberg at DreamWorks. “We went from a hard R to doing a family genre for a while,” he jokes. This pivot led to work on projects like Shrek: I Feel Good, setting the stage for his eventual foray into live-action family entertainment. “We’re really making stories for adults that just happen to be accessible to younger audiences.”
Nicholas Stoller
Nicholas Stoller, known for hit comedies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the Neighbors franchise, brings a sharp comedic sensibility to the Goosebumps adaptation. His partnership with Letterman began on Gulliver’s Travels and has flourished since.
“It’s hard to find people who challenge me as a writer, who I learn from,” Stoller says of Letterman. “We make each other’s stuff better, which is always what you want out of a partner.”
Aging Up Goosebumps
The decision to age up the Goosebumps characters to high school was a pivotal moment in the adaptation process. “It allowed us to tell more mature stories and allowed us to go to places that you can’t really go to with the books,” Letterman explains.
Stoller adds, “We tend to be younger. They’re not perfect characters and they’re all flawed, and it was just really great.” This approach aims to create a show with broad appeal, targeting what they call a “four-quadrant audience,” adults without kids, full families, parents, and younger viewers. “The initial idea was to age it up and try to have a show for the biggest audience possible.”
The duo’s pitch for the series was simple yet compelling: “Freaks and Geeks with Horror.” This concept allowed them to ground the characters in reality while still delivering the scares and laughs that Goosebumps fans expect. “The more grounded you get, the funnier stuff is,” Stoller notes.
“It was really a way to talk about the comedy so people understood that we weren’t going to be broad and we weren’t going to wink at the camera.” This grounded approach extends to their treatment of the horror elements. By focusing on character-driven set pieces, they ensure that even the scariest moments serve the overall story and character development.
Unlike previous Goosebumps adaptations that followed an anthology format, Stoller and Letterman chose to create an interconnected narrative. “We mapped a bunch of books to a group of teens all living in the same place and then they cross paths with each other.” This approach allows viewers to become invested in the characters’ journeys throughout the series, while still drawing on the rich tapestry of stories from Stine’s books.
Writing with Direction in Mind
Both Stoller and Letterman emphasize the importance of writing with direction in mind. Their experience behind the camera informs their approach to scriptwriting, focusing on scenes that drive the story forward and develop characters. “You write what you can shoot,” Letterman says. “It’s very efficient.” This pragmatic approach helps them avoid creating scenes that are likely to be cut during production, streamlining the entire creative process.
Rob Letterman. Photo by (Francisco Roman/ Disney)
“We sit there and we’ll write a whole scene and laugh, but then nod our heads going, ‘That’ll never happen. Let’s just cut it now.'” The transition from comedy to horror-comedy has presented new challenges, particularly in the realm of visual effects. Stoller, less experienced with VFX, has found this to be a learning experience. “It’s often pretty random what costs a lot with visual effects and what doesn’t,” he admits.
Letterman adds, “Visual effects isn’t about any of that. It’s all about money and time.” This reality has forced them to be creative in their storytelling, often finding ways to suggest big moments happening off-camera while focusing on character reactions. Drawing from their wealth of experience, Stoller and Letterman offer valuable advice for new writers.
They emphasize focusing on character and story, ensuring every scene supports development and moves the plot forward. Stoller advises, “Make sure your spec is perfect before you show it to people. If five people give you the same note, that note is correct.”
Advice for Screenwriters (Including Advice From Nora Ephron)
Stoller and Letterman recommend reading current screenplays to learn from successful examples and studying the structure of favorite films in one’s chosen genre. Stoller shares advice he received from Nora Ephron, “Split a movie into eight chapters… each chapter two chapters for the first act, four for the second, two for the third, and at each chapter the story needs to completely turn.”
He adds, “There are very few good writers… You can’t just be a good writer. You have to be fast. You have to be nice. You have to be agreeable.” As their adaptation of Goosebumps finds success on Disney+, Stoller and Letterman continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible in family entertainment.
By blending horror, comedy, and coming-of-age drama, they’ve created a show that captures the spirit of R.L. Stine’s books while offering something new for viewers of all ages. Letterman explains their approach: “We’re really making stories for adults that just happen to be accessible to younger audiences.”
Their journey from comedy heavyweights to horror-comedy innovators serves as a testament to the power of collaboration, adaptability, and a willingness to take risks. As Stoller puts it, “We make each other’s stuff better, which is always what you want out of a partner.”
This interview has been condensed. Listen to the full audio version here.
Learn more from Nicholas Stoller in his interview on Platonic and Bros.
