“When Wes (Craven) passed, I already said goodbye to it,” says original Scream franchise scribe Kevin Williamson today on Deadline’s Hero Nation podcast.
However, when the Dimension Films IP was snapped up by Spyglass Media, conversations began to bubble up of a revival. Williamson had a meeting with Spyglass Boss Gary Barber, however, the project was set into motion when screenwriter James Vanderbilt gave the Scream architect a phone call. In short, the new blood on the project wanted Williamson involved, the scribe taking an EP credit on the Paramount co-production opening today.
You can listen to our conversation with Williamson below:
Interesting to note that Williamson originally pitched a Scream 5 and 6, however, those elements didn’t really get inserted into the new edition; one intriguing character in the “re-quel” being Melissa Barrera’s Sam Carpenter who is a force to be reckoned with in the slasher series moving forward.
“It’s very hard to walk away, but I can do it,” says Williamson about leaving the creative reigns of his projects like Dawson’s Creek, Vampire Diaries, and Scream to others, however, after working extensively in television, he savors the opportunity to work with writers, kick ideas around, and watch them take a life of their own. His trust here with Scream filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett stems from the duo being uber-fans of the franchise.
In regards to a Dawson’s Creek reboot, especially in the age of streamer HBO Max, Williamson says he hears about one “every other year.”
Nonetheless, “I would love to shepherd it” says Williamson with a new generation of scribes.
Scream is off to a great start this weekend, grabbing $3.5M in Thursday night previews, the third best Thursday for a horror movie in the pandemic after Halloween Kills and A Quiet Place Part II which each grossed $4.8M. The outlook over the MLK 4-day holiday is in the $20M range.