Goosebumps Movie Release Date Set On August 2015! Jack Black To Change Film Approach From Horror To Comedy?

Sony originally had set the Jack Black starrer Goosebumps for March 23, 2016, and in March it targeted the untitled Smurfs reboot for August 2015. Now Sony says the director Rob Letterman's adaptation of the popular R.L. Stine book series will be released first on August 7, 2015, and the little blue guys will return to theaters for Round 3 on August 5, 2016.

Compared to its predecessor, the live-action/toon hybrid sequel The Smurfs 2 pretty much bombed when it debuted on the same weekend last year - August 2, to be exact. So for the third go-round, Sony brass tapped Gnomeo & Juliet and Shrek 2 helmer Kelly Asbury to direct an all-animated film with new designs and environments that will focus on the creatures origins and hew more closely to the original artwork.

The move puts Goosebumps up against Fox's Assassin's Creed. So as it's set now, Original Film's Goosebumps will counterprogram Fox's vidgame adaptation Assassin's Creed, and Untilted Smurfs Movie has no competitors on its weekend yet.

"Goosebumps" stars Jack Black as Stine, who in the movie protects the world from monsters by keeping them locked up in books. Dylan Minnette plays a new kid in town who accidentally unleashes the monsters from their manuscripts, forcing him, Stine's daughter (Odeya Rush) and the author himself to put them back where they belong.

Rob Letterman, who worked with Black in "Gulliver's Travels," will direct. It's produced by Neal H. Moritz through his Original Film banner and Deborah Forte of Scholastic Entertainment.

Meanwhile, the third Smurfs film, which is being touted as a reimagining of the franchise, is directed by Kelly Asbury and produced by Jordan Kerner, with Mary Ellen Bauder co-producing.

The third film is not a sequel or a prequel to the first two live-action/CG hybrid films, which grossed a combined $910 million worldwide.