New Rules 4 New Scream of the Decade

Over a decade has passed, and Sidney Prescott, who has put herself back together thanks in part to her writing, will again meet her ceaseless arch-enemy, the Ghostface Killer. Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson’s revolutionary slasher “Scream” series was always the most cerebral of the horror movies. The first film (1996) being a reverence of the whole slasher genre with dialogue that satirized the convention, received generally positive reaction among film reviewers. They appreciated the shift from the teen slasher films of the 1980s and their "endless series of laborious, half-baked sequels." Williamson's script also was praised as containing a "fiendishly clever, complicated plot" which "deftly mixes irony, self-reference and wry social commentary with chills and blood spills." It later followed by “Scream 2” (1997) that was a send off of horror sequels and the third and the least successful of the franchise, “Scream 3” (2000), which looked at the arc of trilogy conventions. 2011 will witness the resurrection of ghostface and its victims, who are still fully aware of the trappings and conventions of horror movies. “Scream 4” also reunites the killer with the franchise's principal stars (Courtney Cox, David Arquette and Neve Campbell) along with newcomers Emma Roberts (Valentine's Day), Hayden Panettiere ("Heroes"), Rory Culkin (Signs), Adam Brody (Jennifer's Body), Erik Knudsen (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), Anna Paquin and Kristen Bell as the next crop of potential victims. The question is how will “Scream 4” work, a decade after the last film? Will it be any good? I, for one, am doubtful about the appeal of a fourth Scream film in view of the present state of the horror landscape of torture films and spooky ghosts. A lot of people also were disappointed in the way the “first trilogy” ended. There were no real, big surprises to cap the series off, especially regarding the series’ protagonist, Sidney Prescott. Craven, however, was very sure with his own answer and promises the same tongue-in-cheek approach as the past three, "[Screenwriter] Kevin [Williamson] is right on his game with the new script -- the characters and story crackle with energy and originality -- to say nothing of some of the most hair-raising scares I've seen in a script since....well, since the original Scream series." Well, obviously Williamson has an idea he wants to share here, he is the one who went to The Weinsteins and made a deal to resurrect the series long after it was buried. Also finding out that they have written this new one as the first in another trilogy is quite a good sign. But knowing they have not decided to make 5 and 6 until they determine how box office healthy this 4 does isn’t a fine symptom. Let’s hope “Scream 4” isn’t just a pointlessly unnecessary sequel that pokes fun at the idea of pointlessly unnecessary sequels, which makes it necessary.

“Scream 4” will be set ten years later in Woodsboro, and is described as “an ensemble” which will introduce several new characters. The new film will take place a decade later, a decade without the ghostface killer. But that doesn’t mean that movie-within-the-movie-series “Stab” has come to an end. Williamson has said 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. In the story, Sidney Prescott (Campbell) who’s now the author of a self-help book, returns home to Woodsboro on the last stop of her book tour. There she reconnects with Sheriff Dewey (Arquette) and Gale (Cox), who are now married, as well as her cousin Jill (Roberts) and her Aunt Kate (Mary McDonnell). Unfortunately Sidney's appearance also brings about the return of Ghostface, putting Sidney, Gale, and Dewey, along with Jill, her friends, and the whole town of Woodsboro in danger.

The fourth chapter rewrites the facts:

# Craven who has a cameo in the movie stated he was not going to return as director unless the script was as good as the first “Scream”.

# With four installments, this landmarks the Scream franchise as being one of the only horror franchises to have its main characters return for all its sequels.

# The film suffered two casting changes in quick succession as shooting had begun. Lake Bell had originally been cast as Judy Hicks but was forced to drop out (which she announced via her Twitter account on June 24th 2010) due to "scheduling conflicts." She was replaced by Marley Shelton. Six days later, Lauren Graham, who was originally cast as Kate Kessler, dropped out also citing "scheduling conflicts" as well as "script changes." She was replaced by Mary McDonnell.

# Ashley Greene was considered for the lead role, but ultimately, Emma Roberts was cast.

# At a table read on June 25, 2010, the actors were told to stop reading at page 75 to prevent those already cast in the film from knowing the climax. The script is reportedly 140 pages long.

# In May of 2010, Cathy Konrad, the producer of all three previous movies in the Scream series, filed a lawsuit against the Weinstein Company stating her production company had a first-rights deal with the Weinstein Company to produce all films in the Scream series. The lawsuit was eventually dropped.

# Patrick Dempsey was rumored to reprise his role from “Scream 3” (2000). The writer, Kevin Williamson, claimed the rumor to be false. Also, Dempsey would be filming “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” (2011) at the same time for shooting Scream 4, where as it would be unlikely to have the availability to reprise his role.

# Alison Brie who play Sidney's personal assistant and Aimee Teegarden returned to Northville on January 31 and February 1, 2011 to shoot two new scenes. Craven explained the scenes are "one scene that's kind of in the late beginning and one scene that's a little bit later".

Mark your calendar on:
April 13, 2011: Egypt, France
April 14: Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Russia
April 15: Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Finland, Italy, Lithuania, Malaysia, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA
April 21: Argentina, Portugal
May 05: Germany

Sources: IMDB, Wikipedia – Photos courtesy of The Weinstein Company