Sony Pictures has acquired rights from Scholastic Media to turn R.L. Stine's young-adult novel series "Goosebumps" into a film franchise says Variety.

The studio and producer Neal Moritz is fast-tracking the project and is focusing on finding a writer. The series spawned a live-action TV show that aired on the Fox Kids Network in the 1990s, but no film version has ever successfully been made.

Moritz said they likely will cast unknown child actors and then pepper the film with well-known thesps in supporting roles.

The "Goosebumps" series have sold 300 million books - a feat second only to J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series.