Don’t throw your studio executive buzzwords at the new Scream film, or Courteney Cox will soon set you straight.
Courteney Cox has starred in all four Scream films so far. She’ll also be appearing in the planned fifth instalment, due in 2022. That makes her something of an authority on the series, so when she tells us that the upcoming fifth entry – simply titled Scream – isn’t a sequel, a reboot or a remake, it’s safe to say that she knows what she’s talking about.
Cox was chatting a little about the film (covered by Movieweb) and said that “this is the fifth one… it’s not Scream 5, though. This is Scream. The directors are incredible, they’re making it absolutely…it’s a new franchise… It’s hip. It’s scary. It’s just a new Scream. It’s not a reboot, it’s not a remake, it’s just a brand-new launch. I think it’s gonna be fantastic.”
It sounds like the film is going down the same road as 2018’s Halloween, keeping key players within the franchise’s universe but divesting itself of several films’ worth of continuity so it can tell a fresh story. That freshness was always key to the series’ success, but with its meta-comic leanings, you can bet there will be some references within the film to this approach.
2018’s Halloween essentially ignored the increasingly less popular sequels, simply continuing on from where John Carpenter’s 1978 original left off. Whether the new Scream reimagining (can we call it that even? Gulp, we’re not sure…) follows suit, remains to be seen.
The film’s directors, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, have chattedabut the film’s influences, adding “we’ve talked about Jordan Peele’s body of work a lot, because what he’s doing is the closest thing to something that we hope to do, and that we love in terms of, tonally, where it’s fun, and it’s about something, and it’s exciting, and it’s not just one thing. We talked about the visual style of Us a lot when we were talking about this, because it captured something very honest and organic while also feeling like a big, fun movie, and to be able to do those two things simultaneously and have an indie vibe that’s also a big, fun, popcorn movie… That’s what, to us, Wes Craven mastered with Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream, where he’s able to walk that line, and that’s the newest thing in that lineage for us.”
It all sounds rather interesting, doesn’t it?
With lots of key players returning, including David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Marley Shelton, Roger L Jackson as the voice of Ghostface, and Courteney Cox, it’s set to be a welcome reunion. We’ll let you know more as we hear it.
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