SDCC 2012: HARRY POTTER Director To Bring CREEPY To Life In Anthology-Style Feature Film

Superheroes aren’t the only stars when it comes to the Comics-to-Hollywood pipeline, as one of the latest Comic-Con announcements is that writer/director Chris Columbus (Harry Potter, Home Alone) is bringing the illustrated horror comics magazine Creepy to life as a feature film. Columbus plans for Creepy to be split into four separate stories akin to Four Rooms, Grindhouse or Amazing Stories. Columbus will write and direct one of those four stories, and will oversee the entire project.

“I am thrilled to be immersed once again in the world of Creepy and Eerie,” Columbus said in an article by The Hollywood Reporter‘s Gregg Kilday. “They featured some of the most important comic book artists of the time and were incredibly influential in my desire to become a filmmaker. It is really exciting to have the opportunity to bring these unique tales to the screen and share them with today’s audiences.”

Launched in 1964 by Warren Publishing, Creepy was a newsstand comics magazine ala Heavy Metal or Mad and ran for nineteen years before its cancellation in 1983. Narrated by a host called Uncle Creepy (not  unlike Tales From The Crypt‘s Cryptkeeper), Creepy played host to a number of horror tales by some of that era’s big comic stars such as Steve Ditko, Neal Adams, Alex Toth, Archie Goodwin, Joe Orlando, Wally Wood and others. In 2007, Dark Horse began a project to collect all 285 issues in a lush hardcover format, and in 2009 they relaunched Creepy with new work.

While his kid-friendly resume might fool you, Columbus is well-versed in comic adaptations. Columbus co-wrote the 1989 animated adaptation of Little Nemo, and was a producer on the two Fantastic Four movies as well as Monkeybone (which was based on the little known graphic novel Dark Town).In a bit of foreshadowing (or just intense fandom), Columbus name-dropped Creepy‘s Uncly Creepy in his last feature film Percy Jackson & The Olympians: Lightning Thief. He also worked for years in the late 90s to write and direct his own Fantastic Four film but could never get the right funding and approval from the rights holders.

There’s no word yet if Columbus will aim to adapt individual stories from the Creepy comics or rather create new ones in the Creepy mold, or just who the three other directors would be, but I’m excited for the possibilities!