20th Century Fox is close to acquiring the rights to the popular series of Choose Your Own Adventure novels.

John Davis and John Fox of Davis Entertainment will produce the potential adaptation of the iconic 80’s book series. It’s hoped that adaptation would have a broad audience appeal and be the launching point for a new movie franchise.

The books were known for their forked or stacked storytelling, allowing readers to choose the path of the characters every few pages, with the decisions leading to different fates, good and bad.

The concept came from Edward Packard, who tried and failed several times to get a book off the ground. In 1975, he partnered with R. A. Montgomery, then an aspiring author and a publisher at a small Vermont-based press. The initial books had modest sales, and it wasn’t until Montgomery made a deal with Bantam Books in the late 1970s that the series became a huge hit, inciting spinoffs and imitators.

The line went on to last until the late 1990s, with over 180 titles and 250 million books sold worldwide.

Packard and Montgomery authored many of the initial titles themselves, but eventually started subcontracting out to other writers. When the two parted ways, Montgomery retained the rights to his stories and — more importantly from a brand point of view — the name; he now runs Chooseco Llc. Packard kept the rights to his books and created U-Ventures, which is creating divergent storytelling apps.

Fox will have all screen rights to the property and will be able to adapt it for multiple platforms. The next step is figuring out what the action-adventure story or stories will be, as the book series ran the gamut of locations (from the Sahara desert to the Altair solar system), time periods and genres (from mysteries to sci-fi and beyond).