Towards the end of last year, there was news that Spyglass Media Group was at work on a new Scream movie. And now, we have word on who’ll be delivering this new outing for the beloved horror franchise.
Via Discussing Film, Ready or Not duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have been tasked with helming what’s currently being dubbed simply Scream 5. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett make up the Radio Silence group alongside Chad Villella – and Villella just so happens to be on board to executive produce Scream 5 along with the original series’ Kevin Williamson.
In terms of plot details, the early buzz right now is that this new Scream offering will centre on a woman who returns to her hometown in an attempt to discover the person responsible for a series of gnarly murders.
Despite being loosely labelled Scream 5 at this juncture, it’s still yet to be confirmed whether this will be a direct continuation of the first four Scream pictures, whether the movie will be a complete fresh start for the franchise, or whether it’ll be some sort of straight-up remake.
From director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson, 1996’s Scream changed the landscape of horror. Poking fun at overplayed genre tropes and the cliché-ridden mess horror had become, Scream also managed to remain a true terror ride while being so meta in its perspective. It was genius, it was perfect, it was the kick in the backside that the horror genre needed at that point in time.
The iconic Craven would return to helm Scream 2 in 1997, Scream 3 in 2000, and Scream 4 in 2011, and Williamson would likewise be back for the third and fourth movies – Ehren Kruger stepping in on writing duties for Scream 3. Since then, the Scream franchise was spun into a TV series that ran for three so-so seasons on Netflix and then VH1.
The reason that Spyglass is able to push forward with a new Scream picture is due to the company assimilating Lantern Entertainment back in March. What’s Lantern Entertainment got to do with things, we hear you ask? Well, Lantern picked up all of Dimension Films’ assets and properties once Dimension was plunged into bankruptcy after the Harvey Weinstein allegations. And you guessed it, one of those Dimension properties was indeed the Scream franchise.
