Sunday, April 28, 2019

Nickelodeon Casting Actors for 'Are You Afraid of the Dark?' Revival Miniseries

Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, Nickelodeon is bringing back the network's beloved '90s horror-fantasy anthology television series Are You Afraid of the Dark? as a miniseries, and are now casting actors to star in the revival!


Are You Afraid of the Dark? is a Canadian Twilight Zone-esqie anthology series created by D.J. MacHale and Ned Kandel. It revolves around a group of teenagers who called themselves the Midnight Society that meet weekly at a secret location in the woods, where one member tells a scary story to the rest of the group, some of which are based on public domain fairy tales, short stories or urban legends. Subjects range from abandoned houses and vampires to scary clowns, witches and aliens.

Update (4/28) - Nickelodeon will be filming the network's Are You Afraid of the Dark? revival miniseries in Vancouver during June and July! The reboot also continues the tradition of filming in Metro Vancouver. The original series was partly filmed in the Richmond area. Other recent ’90s reboots have also been filmed in the region, including the X-Files, and the 90210 reboot will begin filming in North Vancouver this summer.

Update (4/4) - Production Weekly is reporting that Nickelodeon is set to start production on their Are You Afraid of the Dark? revival miniseries on Monday, May 27, 2019 in Vancouver, Canada!

The series debuted in 1990 on the Canadian children's channel YTV and was picked up by Nickelodeon USA in 1991, though it didn’t debut until SNICK’s launch on Saturday, Aug. 15, 1992. The show ran until April 1996, and a revival series with new writers, directors, writers and cast members was produced by Nickelodeon from 1999 to 2000. In all, the series ran for 91 episodes over seven seasons. Tia and Tamera Mowry (Sister, Sister), Will Friedle (Boy Meets World), Neve Campbell, Hayden Christensen, Jay Baruchel, Tatyana Ali, Melissa Joan Hart, Jewel Staite, and two-time Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling are just a few of the household names who have lent their acting skills to the anthology.

Each episode is introduced with the storyteller saying “Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society,” who then would announce the title of that segment. MacHale said the line was a tribute to the series The Twilight Zone, in which creator Rod Serling would introduce the episode by saying, “submitted for your approval.”


Nickelodeon is now casting five actors to feature in the series. According to the show's audition listings on Showfax, the characters names in the new series will be Akiko, Gavin, Graham, Louise, and Rachel. It's currently unclear whether these characters will form the new Midnight Society, or be characters in the short stories the Midnight Society will tell.

Casting is being led by Casting Director Sheryl Levine, who has cast many Nickelodeon shows and movies, including Supah Ninjas, All That, Drake & Josh, Zoey 101, The Nick Cannon Show, Cousin Skeeter, The Amanda Show, Genie in a Bikini, Fred: The Movie, Fred 2: Night of the Living Fred, Fred 3: Camp Fred, and Terry the Tomboy. Levine also served as a co-producer on Fred: The Show.

Announced during Nickelodeon Upfront 2019, the beloved anthology series will return this October as a brand-new miniseries and follow new members of the Midnight Society as they gather around a campfire in the woods to share scary stories.

The miniseries was meant to coincide with the upcoming Are You Afraid of the Dark? theatrical movie from Paramount Pictures, Paramount Players’ and Nickelodeon Movies (Dora the Explorer), which was set to be released in theaters in October 2019. The movie has now been delayed.

The movie is being produced by screenwriter Gary Dauberman (It, The Nun, Annabelle: Creation), who has penned an all-new story focused on the tale-telling Midnight Society huddled around a campfire, along with Matt Kaplan. D.J. Caruso (The Disappointments Room, xXx: Return of Xander Cage, Disturbia) will serve as the films director. Screenwriter Gary Dauberman previously said will “honor the darker, scarier tone of the show.” Dauberman has penned an all-new story focused on the tale-telling Midnight Society huddled around a campfire, along with Matt Kaplan. The most recent draft of the film was written by BenDavid Grabinski.

The movie has been taken off Paramount's release schedule, however, the movie is still in development.

Nickelodeon is in the midst of reviving some of the network's most popular shows. Rugrats for example, is being rebooted for not only a Nickelodeon TV show, but a CGI/live-action movie as well. Nickelodeon also announced that Rocko's Modern Life would be returning to the network with a TV movie, as well as Invader Zim, which will likely be getting its TV movie in 2019. Nickelodeon also revived Legends of the Hidden Temple and Hey Arnold! for TV movies, which aired in 2016 and 2017, respectively, and has also revived Double Dare. Nickelodeon is also in the planning stages to revive Clarissa Explains It All, and will be reviving All That with a all-new cast as well as old favorites in Summer 2019.

More Nick: Nickelodeon Embarks on New Direction with its Biggest, Most Wide-Ranging Content Slate Ever!

Originally published: Tuesday, April 2, 2019 at 7:53pm GMT.

Source: Nickandmore! (II); H/T: Anime Superhero Forum /@kanc; Additional sources: ComicBook, The Journal Pioneer.
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