After 24 years, the cast of Wes Craven’s horror classic Scream is coming together to start work on the latest installment in the franchise. Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, and Marley Shelton are all confirmed to be reprising their roles from the original Scream. In an interview with Collider, the co-director of Scream 5, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, weighed in on how they were able to get so much of the original cast to return to the franchise.
“This is totally just theory, but I think honestly, a lot of that was Wes Craven because as we talked to all of the cast that’s returning, the first conversation and many of the following conversations are about Wes Craven and about how important he was in their lives personally and as the director and just with Scream in general. And it feels like in a lot of ways, he was the father of a large family. And so for them, it was just returning to this family situation. They all talk about it like a family. And to us, that’s very moving to be kind of the new kids moving in and to be even a part of that peripherally and then creating our own version of that. It’s just such a model for us to follow; that’s what this should be first and foremost a family. And then we get to tell these cool stories, hopefully moving forward.”
Although Wes Craven passed away in 2015, his place in history is assured as one of the greatest horror filmmakers Hollywood has ever seen. Scream was one of Craven’s most imaginative offerings, serving as both a typical slasher-horror flick and also a meta-narrative with regards to the audience’s relationship with the slasher-horror genre. For Bettinelli-Olpin’s co-director Tyler Gillett, the love and care with which Craven created the world of Scream played a crucial role in making their new film set as collaborative an environment as it was able to become.
“I can say with complete confidence that, we’re half of the way through the shoot and the experience that we’ve had with the cast, both legacy characters and new cast members, I don’t think it comes around maybe but once in a career that you get to get together with a group of people and have the experience we’re having. The process has truly been a dream come true and I think that Wes and Kevin and what they designed and how they designed it is a huge part of why this feels the way it feels and why people show up ready to have fun and ready to be scared. And that translates in a huge way onto the screen.”
Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, Scream features Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Jack Quaid, Marley Shelton, Dylan Minnette, Mason Gooding, Mikey Madison, Melissa Barrera, and Jenna Ortega. The film is scheduled to arrive in theaters on January 14, 2022. This news comes from Collider.