While the rest of Hollywood is delaying release dates and reports of new projects are few and far between, Spyglass Media is rolling along like nothing unusual is happening. They’ve announced that the long-rumoured Scream reboot is indeed in development, and Ready Or Not filmmaking team Radio Silence (Matthew Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and Chad Villella) will direct.
There are conflicting reports as to whether this is a reboot or Scream 5. It seems unlikely that this film would be a direct sequel to Wes Craven‘s previous four films for many reasons, but especially because Spyglass would presumably love for this film to spawn a new franchise, and handcuffing it to the old one wouldn’t seem like the smartest idea.
1996’s Scream was a landmark horror release. At the time, mainstream horror was circling the drain, as audiences were burned out on low-budget slasher sequels, and there was a distinct lack of creativity. Scream changed that with its meta commentary, surprising kills and updated style, rejuvenating the genre and leading to its own batch of meta imitators over the next few years.
Two sequels followed soon after, before Craven announced a second trilogy beginning with Scream 4 in 2011. Unfortunately, Craven’s death in 2015 halted any possible plans for further movies. Since then, a Scream reboot has been rumoured and talked about pretty frequently, and was only a matter of time.
Whether Scream‘s style still works in the modern era is debatable though. It was fresh in the 90s, and the original trilogy holds up incredibly well, but its imitators in the two-plus decades since have watered down its ideas, and Scream 4 – with its updated but lazy commentary on internet culture and the like – didn’t work, and sticks out in the franchise like a sore thumb.
Still, the project should be in good hands with Radio Silence at the helm. Their low budget horror-comedy Ready Or Not was well liked and made over $57 million at the worldwide box office on just a $6 million budget. Those sorts of profits will always keep Hollywood interested. The team has also contributed entries to horror anthologies V/H/S and Southbound.
So while we don’t know many details regarding the new Scream film, and whether any of the cast or crew (such as original writer Kevin Williamson) will return, we do now have confirmation the movie is actually happening. We’ll now wait for more details about how Ghostface is going to wreak havoc on a new generation of horror movie fans.
#Peace.Love.Scream
