CS Video: Jack Black and Director Rob Letterman Talk Goosebumps

ComingSoon.net talks with Jack Black and director Rob Letterman about bringing R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps to life

This past weekend, Goosebumps author R.L. Stine made a rare public appearance at New York Comic Con at a panel for the upcoming movie directed by Rob Letterman (Monsters vs. Aliens), and he was joined by Jack Black (who plays Stine in the movie), Letterman and the three primary young cast members of the film–Dylan Minette, Odeya Rush and Ryan Lee–to talk to fans about the upcoming movie.

Minette plays Zach Cooper, a teenager who has moved to a small suburban town with his mother. After meeting Rush’s Hannah, the pretty girl next door, who has a rather odd-behaving father (Black), Zach suspects foul play when he hears her screams and he sneaks into the basement with his friend Champ (Lee) where they discover a shelf full of manuscripts by author R.L. Stine. When they open one of the locked manuscripts, they let loose the Abominable Snowman and so begins their adventure as they have to team with Hannah and her father (who happens to be R.L. Stine) in stopping the evil dummy Slappy from unleashing all the monsters from Stine’s book.

After the panel, ComingSoon.net had a chance to sit down with Black and Letterman to talk about the ins ‘n’ outs of bringing R.L. Stine (in the case of Black) and his monsters to life.  

Jack Black – “R.L. Stine”

We spoke with Black about coming up with just the right way to portray R.L. Stine, as well as talking about some of his own horror favorites and more!

Rob Letterman – Director

Our interview with the film’s director covered a lot of ground, including how they decided on which monsters to include (or leave out) and how he incorporated practical on-set monsters with digital effects.

Goosebumps opens nationwide on Friday, October 16 with previews on Thursday night.