Overview
- Paramount Animation unveiled the untitled animated adaptation on Monday at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, naming Dan Trachtenberg director-producer, Yehudi Mercado co-director, and Ben Rosenblatt producer.
- The studio is positioning the film as a PG-rated horror-comedy that aims to deliver family-friendly scares and laughs rather than the R-rated tone of traditional slasher fare.
- The project adapts Mercado’s 2025 graphic novel about Freddy Vanwinkle, an unlucky uncle who inherits a slasher’s mantle and must protect his niece and nephew while trying to break a curse.
- Trachtenberg’s attachment follows a three-year first-look producing and directing deal he signed with Paramount Pictures and comes after his recent work on animated and live-action Predator projects.
- The film is in early development, has no release date, and the current working title may change as Paramount integrates the project into a larger slate overseen by president Jennifer Dodge.