2027 will see both Neon and A24 release horror films based on the SCP Foundation.

Months after A24 announcing V/H/S: SCP, Neon has revealed it is developing its own anthology movie based on the SCP Foundation, a collaborative online horror writing project. The studio has stressed that their film will be released under the Creative Commons license CC BY-SA, after the SCP Foundation Wiki denounced the A24 film.

The SCP Foundation Wiki, the project’s original creators, released a statement claiming that A24 “does not and cannot have exclusive rights to anything related to the SCP Foundation”. The statement contests that the SCP Foundation is under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. Derivative works are therefore allowed, but the crux of the complaint is that A24 “would not be able to establish any sort of exclusivity with respect to distribution”.

Conversely, Neon has been in communication with the SCP Wiki team and will respect the Creative Commons license that A24 has allegedly violated. Deadline has reported that development on the project was in motion before the A24 announcement.

The understanding is that the A24 film can avoid infringing on the Creative Commons license by technically being a V/H/S film inspired by the SCP Foundation rather than a direct adaptation, but this is new territory for Hollywood and complex conversations around the Creative Commons license will surely arise as these projects move forward.

Aside from representing a clash between two of the biggest indie film studios, the competing SCP Foundation films are a testament to the value of internet horror IP after the colossal success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms. Other upcoming adaptations include a film based on the creepypasta character Siren Head, with Weapons and Resident Evil filmmaker Zach Cregger writing, and a “Jeff the Killer” film from creator-led studio Tongal.