Friday, March 13, 2020

REBOOT of 1996 Horror Classic “SCREAM” Gets “READY OR NOT” Directors


There was a time when horror movies, particularly “slasher” films, followed a rote storytelling convention. Take a group of people, usually reckless air-headed teenagers, then set a killer loose at them and watch as their numbers get whittled down with death after death until a final survivor (likely a girl) either escapes or puts the murderous force down. The year 1996 saw Dimension Films release “Scream” directed by Wes Craven, which revisits spree killer films while featuring characters that are aware of the genre’s various conventions. “Scream” would receive three sequels and a TV spinoff. Meanwhile plans for a remake of the original have finally come to the development table.

The Hollywood Reporter tells us that a “Scream” reboot is soon to be at the horizon after Spyglass Media has found, not just one, but two directors for the project. They would be Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, who last year came onto the spotlight for their comparably successful comedy horror movie “Ready or Not” for Fox Searchlight Pictures (now just Searchlight Pictures). They will be joined in the “Scream” production by producer Chad Villela, with the three of them together forming the horror filmmaking posse known as Radio Silence.

“Scream,” or at least its original first movie, tells the story of a small-town girl who finds herself the target of GhostFace, a sadistic serial killer who wears a now-iconic costume of a black robe and a white mask modeled after the central character of “The Scream,” a painting by Edvard Munch. She and her circle of friends are rather savvy about horror movie clichés (with one mentioning how characters who say “I’ll be right back” tend not to), but that does not quite save them from getting mutilated. The movie starred Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courtney Cox and Matthew Lillard, the first time a horror film featured already-established actors.

The original 1996 production was under Dimension Films when it was a label of Miramax when Bob and Harvey Weinstein were still around. After the Weinsteins formed their own company, they took Dimension with them, until the Weinstein Company went bankrupt in 2018 and certain media assets, including “Scream,” were snapped up by Lantern Entertainment, which then co-founded Spyglass Media only in 2019. No further details about the in-development movie were made known, particularly on whether it will be a straight reboot or a spinoff/sequel.

Image courtesy of Variety

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