Disney picks new 'Goosebumps' live-action TV series

Variety has learned that Disney Plus has given a 10-episode order to the new series version of the beloved R.L. Stine books was first reported as being in the works in April 2020.

The series revolves around the story of a group of five high schoolers who unleash supernatural forces upon their town and must all work together - thanks to and in spite of their friendships, rivalries, and pasts with each other - in order to save it, learning much about their own parents' teenage secrets in the process. 

Nick Stoller and Rob Letterman serve as writers and executive producers on the show, with Stoller executively producing via Stoller Global Solutions. 

Letterman will also don the director's hat for the first episode. Neal H. Moritz and Pavun Shetty of Original Film, Conor Welch of Stoller Global Solutions, and Iole Lucchese and Caitlin Friedman of Scholastic Entertainment are also executively producing.

Sony Pictures Television Studios will produce the project. Original Film and Stoller Global Solutions are currently under TV overall deals with Sony. Moritz was a producer on the two recent 'Goosebumps' feature films, which were released in 2015 and 2018. 

Letterman directed the first film. Published by Scholastic, 'Goosebumps' is one of the best-selling book series of all time. 

As per Variety, more than 400 million English-language copies of the books are now in print, plus international editions in 32 languages. There are now more than 200 'Goosebumps' books in total, including the main book series as well as various spinoffs and related book series. 

The Disney Plus show is now the second live-action 'Goosebumps' series to make it to air. 

The first version aired for four seasons and 74 episodes between 1996 and 1998. That show was an episodic anthology, with each episode based on a different 'Goosebumps' book. This is also the second R.L. Stine series to be ordered at Disney Plus. The streamer previously ordered a series adaptation of Stine's 'Just Beyond' graphic novels.