Josh Cooley & Sam Raimi Teaming To Develop ‘99 Nights In The Forest’ For 20th Century Studios

After directing Transformers One to a worldwide gross of more than $129M, Josh Cooley has inked a deal to pen 99 Nights in the Forest, an adaptation of the popular video game for 20th Century Studios, Deadline has confirmed.

Sources said the studio landed rights in a highly competitive situation. There’s not yet a director attached.

Sam Raimi (Send Help) and Rob Tapert (Don’t Breathe) are set to produce for Ghost House Pictures. Exec producers include game designer Alec Kieft (aka Cracky4), programmer Matthew Hufton (aka ForyxeV), and environment and asset creator Cameron Angland (aka Viridial), as well as Ghost House’s Romel Adam (Evil Dead Rise) and Jose Cañas (Play Dead).

J.R. Young is overseeing the project for 20th Century Studios. Michelle Kamme is credited with getting the deal across the finish line for the studio.

Produced by Grandma’s Favourite Games, 99 Nights in the Forest is an action-survival game where players must survive 99 nights in a haunted forest while attempting to rescue four lost children and survive the vicious deer and other beasts. Not even a year old, the game is already the 7th most played game of all time on Roblox, boasting nearly 26 billion lifetime visits and a player rating of 90.6%.

Cooley is the Academy Award-winning filmmaker who made his feature film directorial debut with Toy Story 4 and more recently helmed Transformers One, the first-ever fully CG-animated Transformers movie. Other projects he’s worked on include Inside Out, Coco, Incredibles 2, Onward and Soul — all from Pixar.