I grew up on the beaches there and it’s funny, whenever people would come and visit me who had never been to Brooklyn, they’d say, “Wait, hold on. Coney Island is a very special part of Brooklyn.

In a conversation with THR, Aronofsky explains the biggest challenge in fleshing out the story, the “magical” nature of growing up in Brooklyn and Coney Island and snagging blurbs from stars Sadie Sink and Logan Lerman. But at the suggestion of a writer pal, Aronofsky and Handel shifted gears and adapted their script into a children’s novel. The fact that it arrives so close to The Whale is just coincidental as Aronofsky tells The Hollywood Reporter that it wasn’t planned that way, “it’s just serendipity.” It’s also a testament to not giving up on a good idea as the pair first tried to get the project made as a feature film several years back. So when his friends start to think of Monster Club as a kid’s game and get more interested in other things, Eric can’t deal. But then he happens across a long-lost vial of magic ink that brings their monster drawings to life, and suddenly, Monster Club isn’t just for fun anymore. If it weren’t for Monster Club, a roleplaying game his friends created, Eric’s life would be pretty terrible. With hungry property developers circling the wreckage, Eric’s family is falling apart from the threat of losing it all. Like almost everything in 11-year-old Eric “Doodles” King’s life, King’s Wonderland - the amusement park his great-great grandfather founded - was damaged when a hurricane hit his beloved Coney Island neighborhood.

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