EXCLUSIVE: Disney Branded Television has given a formal pilot green light to Eerie Prep, based on the Eerie Elementary children’s books by Jack Chabert, a pen name for The Last Kids On Earth author Max Brallier. The project, for Disney+ and Disney Channel, is changing things up from the books, which follow the adventures of Sam Graves, a boy in third grade. In the TV adaptation, Sam Graves is a girl played by Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey star Madalen Mills who is older as the setting has been changed from an elementary to a prep school.
The main cast of the pilot, written by David H. Steinberg and Keetgi Kogan, directed by Eric Dean Seaton and showrun by M. Raven Metzner, also includes Niko Ceci (I Woke a Vampire), Charlie Ellis, Madison Rojas, Michaela Russell and Alex Bar, with Hanna Huffman and Felicia Day guest starring.
In Eerie Prep (aka Eerie Academy), when her sister vanishes from the prestigious Eerie Prep, Sam Graves (Mills) assembles a team of uniquely skilled students to uncover the truth behind a series of strange, supernatural occurrences—and to confront whoever, or whatever, is behind the disappearance.
Ceci and Ellis play Sam’s best friends Antonio and Lucy, respectively. Rojas plays Paxton, Russell plays Krla, Bar plays Devon, Huffman plays Quinn, and Day plays Dr. Brewster.
Metzner, Seaton, Steinberg and Kogan executive produce alongside Hillary Turner, Lindsay MacAdam and Brallier. Thunderbird Entertainment is producing for Disney Branded TV.
There are 10 tomes in the Eerie Elementary early chapter book series for newly independent readers, published by Scholastic between 2014 and 2019. Brailler’s The Last Kid On Earth books were turned into a Netflix children’s animated series, which ran for 3 seasons.
Another Disney Branded TV pilot for Disney+, Holes, also gave the book it is based on a gender swap. Meanwhile, DBT’s pilot Coven Academy was recently picked up to series.
Steinberg and Kogan are repped by Gersh and Marathon Management. Seaton is repped by Artists First and Paradigm. Metzner is repped by WME and McKuin Frankel Whitehead. Mills is repped by Paradigm and Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka.