News about a fourth installment to Wes Craven’s Scream saga was confirmed to have been green lighted for production. The film is set 10 years after the events of Scream 3 and will star a new line of people to be mixed into the slasher world. Wes has told EW that screenwriter Kevin Williamson (Vampire Diaries) has been working on the script and the trio of Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette was set to make an appearance in the film. So it’s been 10 years since the incident at Woodsboro and the ghostface killer hasn’t made a move in a while, so all seems fairly well doesn’t it?
We have fun with the idea of endless sequels, or “sequelitis” as Kevin calls it in the script. Sid goes through these three horrendous things, and Stab was based on those horrible things. And then they’ve been taken by a studio and run into the ground in a series of sequels. She has been off by herself and living her own life, and she’s even written a book that has gotten a lot of critical acclaim. She’s kind of put her life back together in the course of these 10 years. But, certainly, there would be no Scream without Ghostface, so she has to confront him again, but now as a woman who has really come out the darkness of her past.” … “This is a film about the progress of, at this point, three core characters, and how all of these events have changed their lives, and how the events in their lives have been reflected in the movies around them, which they might like or might really not like at all. I think that makes it really different.
The film will feature a whole new list of cast members and is looking to be a start of a whole new trilogy according to Wes and Williamson. But who will be replacing the main characters and how will this movie-within-a-movie slasher film work it’s way back into the big screen?
It’s been rumored that a few people, including Twilight‘s Ashley Greene was being considered for the lead role for the film. However, Emma Roberts is now reported to have that role leaving people to wonder what about the rest of the cast. Variety reports that Hayden Panetteire (Heroes) and Rory Culkin (Signs, Mean Creek) are confirmed to be playing parts in the new film. Looking to join the film is Lake Bell, and leaving Greene at a loss as to what she will be doing in the movie.
Emma Roberts will be Jill, “one of the film’s primary heroines,” and a cousin to Neve Cambell’s character in the series. Rory Culkin will be playing a potential love interest for Jill, while Hayden is set to play Jill’s nerdy film geek best friend. Which leads us to believe that the storyline will not diverge from the original series. However there will be new elements as they tap into other slasher films for inspiration for the new trilogy, as they did with the first three movies. Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette will be reprising their original roles for the first film, how involved in the story they will be is still unsure. If Lake Bell joins the cast she will be playing “a police officer who new Sidney (Campbell) from high school.
Williamson mentions that Scream 4 will reference manga comics, Asian ghost girl movies, PG-13 horror movies, vampire films, M. Night Shyamalan movies and even torture porn. How this is all going to work out, I don’t know, but I’ve always been a sucker for the Scream series and I’m still unsure of whether I think this is a good thing or a bad idea.
Scream 4 will begin shooting in Michigan in June 2010, aiming for a April 15th 2011 release.
