Dimas Ibnu18/09/2026
4 min read
Josh Cooley, who won an Academy Award for directing Toy Story 4, has been hired to write 20th Century Studios’ live-action adaptation of Roblox survival horror hit 99 Nights in the Forest. Sam Raimi and his longtime producing partner Rob Tapert are producing, and the game’s three New Zealand-based developers are on board as executive producers. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news, and 20th Century has not made a formal announcement.
The Disney-owned studio bought theatrical rights to the game in April and has not set a release date. This is the first Roblox title it has taken into feature development.
Josh Cooley Writes, Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert Produce
Cooley came out of Pixar, where he shared a writing credit on Inside Out and picked up an Academy Award nomination for best original screenplay in 2016. His directorial debut, Toy Story 4, won best animated feature in 2020, and he most recently directed Transformers One, the first fully CG-animated film in that series, with Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key and Jon Hamm in its voice cast. All of it is animation. 99 Nights in the Forest would be live action.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, 20th Century heard pitches from several writers before settling on Cooley’s take, which has not been described publicly. Raimi’s credit is the one that reads as a deliberate match rather than a scheduling convenience: the director of the original Evil Dead trilogy spent three films on people trapped in the woods with something that wants them dead, and the game is about surviving 99 nights in a haunted forest.
| Name | Role on the film | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Josh Cooley | Screenwriter | Toy Story 4, Transformers One, Inside Out |
| Sam Raimi | Producer | The original Evil Dead trilogy |
| Rob Tapert | Producer | Frequent Raimi producing partner |
| Alec Kieft, Matthew Hufton, Cameron Angland | Executive producers | Developers of 99 Nights in the Forest |
| Romel Adam | Executive producer | Evil Dead Rise |
| Jose Cañas | Executive producer | Play Dead |
What Happens in 99 Nights in the Forest
Players build a camp in a haunted forest and try to last 99 nights while rescuing four missing children. The things hunting you include a monstrous deer, the cultists who serve it, and assorted other killer beasts in the deeper woods. It is co-operative action-survival rather than a jump-scare ride, which is part of why it holds sessions long enough to accumulate the numbers it has.
20th Century’s First Roblox Film, and Its First Game Movie Under Disney
The Hollywood Reporter describes the project as the division’s first feature adaptation of a video game, which needs one qualification: 20th Century released both Hitman and Assassin’s Creed, but it did so while the studio was owned by Fox. Under Disney, 99 Nights in the Forest is the first, and it is the studio’s first Roblox property either way.
David Greenbaum, president of Disney’s live-action and 20th Century Studios operations, framed the acquisition around the players the game already has rather than the ones a film might win. That logic is not confined to one title. Grow a Garden and Steal a Brainrot, two other Roblox breakouts, have also picked up Hollywood development deals, which puts 99 Nights inside a pattern rather than out on its own as a novelty purchase.
The New Zealand Studio Behind the Game
99 Nights in the Forest was built by Grandma’s Favourite Games, a New Zealand studio, and its three founders (Alec Kieft, Matthew Hufton and Cameron Angland) hold executive producer credits on the film. That makes this a locally developed Roblox game heading into a Disney-backed feature with Raimi’s name attached to it.
The rights were picked up clean and without attachments, meaning 20th Century bought the game in April with no writer, director or producers already tied to it. Everything announced since, Raimi and Tapert included, was assembled after the purchase. No director or cast has been attached yet, and it is not clear how close the adaptation is to production.
20th Century Studios99 Nights in the ForestJosh CooleyRobloxSam RaimiVideo Game Movies
