SCP Foundation Wiki Says A24 Never Contacted Them About ‘V/H/S: SCP’ Movie

A24 has built one of the most consistent horror pipelines in the industry over the past few years, with the studio increasingly turning toward viral internet phenomena for its next big theatrical swing. Following the massive success of ‘Backrooms,’ which grossed nearly $400 million worldwide, the studio clearly saw an opportunity to keep mining creepypasta culture for its next franchise expansion.

That strategy led A24 to board ‘V/H/S: SCP’ this month, taking worldwide theatrical rights to expand the long-running found-footage anthology series into the world of the SCP Foundation, a sprawling collaborative fiction universe built around a secret organization that contains paranormal anomalies. The deal marked the franchise’s first true theatrical release since its 2012 debut, having spent most of its fourteen-year history living on Shudder.

That expansion has now hit an unexpected snag, one rooted less in creative disagreements than in the unusual legal foundation the SCP universe was built on in the first place. The staff and authors behind the SCP Foundation Wiki say they were never contacted by A24, the filmmakers, or the producers about the project, despite reportedly attempting to reach the team themselves before the announcement went public.

In a statement posted to the wiki, the Foundation directly disputed reports that A24 holds exclusive rights to the material, writing that the studio “does not and cannot have any exclusive rights” to anything tied to the SCP universe, a position it laid out in comments reported by iHorror. That distinction matters enormously given how the entire SCP project has operated since its 2008 launch.

Unlike most Hollywood intellectual property, SCP stories and concepts are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license, a framework that permits commercial adaptations but requires those derivative works to carry the same open license forward. According to the Foundation’s own interpretation, that means A24 would be barred from distributing ‘V/H/S: SCP’ with DRM protections or any technological measures designed to prevent copying.

Taken to its logical conclusion, the Foundation argues this would mean any commercial streaming service could legally carry the film without paying A24 for the privilege, and that individual users could freely upload the entire movie to platforms like YouTube without facing legal consequences. It’s worth noting this remains the Foundation’s own reading of the license rather than a formal legal ruling, leaving open the possibility that A24’s legal team sees the situation differently.

The Foundation didn’t stop at questioning distribution rights, either. Its statement specifically criticized the filmmakers for showing no interest in engaging with the actual authors and curators behind the material they’re adapting, despite the project drawing directly from a community-built universe that’s inspired games, videos, and podcasts over the past two decades.

‘V/H/S: SCP’ is being developed alongside Spooky Pictures and Image Nation Studios, with the anthology structured around segments presented as recovered footage documenting various containment breaches within the SCP universe. The project was first revealed back in July before A24 officially joined and took worldwide rights in September, setting the film up for a 2027 theatrical release with no director or cast yet confirmed.

Despite the dispute, the Foundation has signaled it remains open to working things out, stating it would welcome a meeting with A24 and the producers to figure out a release strategy that actually complies with the license’s terms. Whether that kind of resolution materializes before the film moves further into production remains to be seen, especially given how unusual this entire situation is compared to typical Hollywood IP negotiations.

For a studio riding high off ‘Backrooms’ and clearly eager to keep tapping into internet-born horror mythology, this unexpected licensing standoff serves as a reminder that not every viral universe comes with the same clean, easily licensed rights structure as a traditional franchise. How A24 navigates this particular complication could end up shaping whether Hollywood’s growing appetite for creepypasta adaptations continues without friction.

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