DEADLINE | by Geoff Boucher July 24, 2019
EXCLUSIVE: Margot Robbie and her LuckyChap Entertainment are teaming with Assemble Media and Warner Horizon to develop Elizabeth Massie’s Ameri-Scares book series as a family-friendly horror anthology with a road-trip spirit: Every episode would take place in a different state and center on a notorious local legends or spooky historical events.
Ameri-Scares is being developed as a series for traditional television or for a streaming service. Robbie, Brett Hedblom, & Josey McNamara will produce for LuckyChap Entertainment, which produced the I, Tonya and the recently wrapped Birds of Prey (and The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). Jack Heller & Brendan Deneen will produce for Assemble Media, which is also producing Gia Coppola’s forthcoming film Mainstream, starring Andrew Garfield, Maya Hawke, and Nat Wolff.
With Ameri-Scares we saw the perfect opportunity for us to delve into the horror space, and tell the kind of unique and scary stories we used to tell each other around the campfire or at sleepovers as kids,” Robbie and her company said in a statement. “We’re excited to team with our partners at Assemble and Warner Horizon to bring Elizabeth Massie’s cross-country series of thrilling mysteries and haunting folk stories to life.”
Massie, whose body of work includes novels, short fiction, media-tie ins, poetry, and nonfiction, is a two-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award and a recipient of the Scribe Award. Crossroad Press of North Carolina publishes Ameri-Scares, which is aimed at middle-school readers (ages 8-13). To date, there have been eight novellas in the book series: California, New York, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Maryland, all written by Massie, plus Michigan and West Virginia editions written by Steven Mark Rainey.
“As fans of horror fiction that appeals to both teens and adults alike, we knew as soon as we read Ameri-Scares that Elizabeth had created something very special and of-the-moment,” said Deneen, Assemble’s president of Literary an IP Development. “We’re thrilled to be working with LuckyChap and Warner Horizon on this spooky new series.”
LuckyChap Entertainment is represented by Management 360, CAA, attorney Jeff Bernstein, and Narrative PR.