Reddit horror story turns into a Hollywood film, stars Sydney Sweeney and scripted by Oscar-winning "Dune" writer

Warner Bros. has secured the rights to adapt a popular Reddit horror story into a film starring Sydney Sweeney, with Oscar-winning "Dune" screenwriter Eric Roth penning the script.
The film will be based on "I pretended to be a missing girl so I could rob her family," a story posted in 2020 on the r/nosleep subreddit. The plot follows a young woman who shows up at a family's doorstep pretending to be their long-missing daughter with the intention of stealing valuables.
Joe Cote, a Massachusetts high school English teacher who wrote the original post, will serve as executive producer. The story was discovered by talent manager Aaron Folbe of Underground Entertainment, who sought out Cote and secured him representation.
Sweeney, who recently starred in hits like "Anyone But You" and "Immaculate," will both star in and produce the film through her Fifty-Fifty Films production company. She was instrumental in bringing Roth aboard the project, whose screenwriting credits include "Forrest Gump," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Dune: Part One," and "Killers of the Flower Moon."
This marks one of Hollywood's most significant attempts to adapt content from Reddit, following previous adaptations of internet stories like "Slender Man" and A24's "Zola," which was based on a viral Twitter thread.
The r/nosleep community, known for its "creepypasta" scary tales told in first person with an emphasis on immersion, has become a breeding ground for horror content. While Netflix previously acquired rights to another r/nosleep story in 2020, this Warner Bros. project appears poised to become the first major studio release based on a Reddit post.
No director is currently attached to the project, which was secured by Warner Bros. in a competitive bidding situation.