Scream 4

[MacGuffin]

Neve Campbell to Return for Scream 4
Source: Variety

Bob Weinstein has confirmed to Variety that Neve Campbell has signed to return as Sidney Prescott in Dimension Films' Scream 4, which will start production in April or May. It will be the first film of a new trilogy and Wes Craven is in talks to direct once again. Campbell is joining returning stars Courteney Cox and David Arquette.

Weinstein also said that Robert Rodriguez is writing Spy Kids 4, which he will direct in 3D. The movie will be made in partnership with Disney and will start shooting in March.

Dimension is also planning to make Halloween 3D for an October 2010 release and is remaking the cult classic Children of the Corn.

Weinstein cited plans to shoot new Hellraiser and Scanners films in 3D. Also on the slate are remakes of Short Circuit and An American Werewolf in London.

[Stefen]

lol@Robert Rodriguez.

[polkablues]

lol@Robert Rodriguez.

And never stop.

[modage]

Weinstein will hire a bunch of WB-style actors to fill out the cast (incl. someone from Gossip Girl) and Neve Campbell will be the mom of one of these characters who will be killed in the first scene.  Let's see how close I am.

[Stefen]

I predict Sidney IS the killer.

[72teeth]

Yup, thats the first thing i said to myself too...

[Gold Trumpet]

I predict Sidney IS the killer.

I actually think that would be awesome if they did it correctly. Instead of trying to find a bullshit rationalization to how she could have been the killer all along, what could happen now is that her constant role as victim to this killer could convince her the only way she can take power in this relationship is to assume the role herself. Instead of allow someone else to come along and assume the role, she can be the tormentor. She can do all the things that the killer would do and take the position of power. Her years of harassment and trauma would be suitable for a psyche that would be attracted to killing other people.

[Stefen]

The first Scream really is awesome if you're watching it for the first time. Scream 2 was one of those movies where I counted down the days until it opened.

NERD!

[socketlevel]

i didn't quite count the days down but ya it's unjustly labeled as a bad series. even to this day you can see how it was made by a master despite its trendy subject matter. i remember the first scene with drew being so intense. maybe it was my headspace but when she's chased down on the lawn and murdered i remember thinking that it was so dark and intense. later i found out that scene was actually cut down quite a bit because the mpaa couldn't handle it. i'd love to find a directors cut.

i really liked it when it came out, i think all the subsequent slasher flicks somehow ruined it, it re-invented the genre no doubt. i actually really like the third one too. guilty pleasure maybe, but parker pose makes me laugh in every scene she's in. imo the 2nd is the weakest.

though the article says the first in a new trilogy, i would imagine her being the killer by the end of the 6th one then, and if they built that up correctly they could tie her into the 4th and 5th. truth be known she should have been the killer in the 3rd one.  biggest problem with the 2nd and 3rd ones were the fact that the killers and motives seemed tacked on.  the reveal is what made the first movie cool, it was a good resolution to the build up, something that often isn't the case.  sadly they never lived up to it.

[Stefen]

The first is the best. I really wish I could watch it again for the first time. That ending. My goodness.

[tpfkabi]

re: Scream talk late last year

I remember seeing Scream II opening night - I was still underage so we got our older legal friend to buy tics. There were crowds waiting out in the lobby, so it was a big deal even in rural East Tx. I was scared in that screening because it has the movie theatre scenes/kills and then some guy ran through our theatre in Scream get up.

[MacGuffin]

Exclusive: New 'Scream 4' poster, plus an interview with director Wes Craven
Source: EW

It's been 10 years since his last appearance in Scream 3, but Ghostface is back for more, as is the original Scream team of director Wes Craven, screenwriter Kevin Williamson (The Vampire Diaries), and the acting trio of Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette. Dimension Films gave EW.com the first look at the final teaser poster for Scream 4, which will hit theaters April 15, 2011. Horror movie maestro Craven, who'll start shooting the new sequel this June, kindly set aside a few minutes to chat about the fourth entry in his memorably meta series.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So how did Scream 4 come together?
WES CRAVEN: Bob Weinstein [the head of Dimension Films] felt that 10 years was enough of a wait. He felt it was time to give the original three films their due, so he called Kevin Williamson, who started coming up with ideas. For some years, Kevin had the notion of the general course of the next three movies. There was a point where Bob came to me and said, "We want to start showing you pages — do you want to do it?" And off we went.

Did you have any trepidation about revisiting the series so many years down the road?
No, I'm fascinated by what this movie is. I can't think of another film that has not only a true trilogy, where you're following a single central character over three pictures, but has the complexity to the story and other characters that also have continued along. And then 10 years later, to come back to those same characters and same actors, and continue that story in a way that's totally organic. It's kind of unprecedented.

Are Sidney (Campbell), Gale (Cox), and Dewey (Arquette) still going to be the central characters, or are they on the periphery this time?
It's a total integration of those three and new kids. The story of Sid, Gale, and Dewey is very much a part of the movie.

And Sid's still having problems with Ghostface?
There have been 10 years of no Ghostface, but there has been the movie-within-a-movie Stab. 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.

Can you tease what's happening with Dewey and Gale by this point?
I don't think Bob Weinstein would be very happy if I disclosed anything. We have been playing CIA with trying to keep everything secret, and we haven't put any pages out from the current version of the script, except for things we've already discarded. Our first experience with casting this time around, the sides [portions of the script used for auditions] that we used were put on the Internet the same afternoon. It was bad back when we made the other movies, too. On Scream 2, we had the first 40 pages of the script show up on the Internet the night they arrived from Kevin, and we had to do backflips to rewrite the opening.

Speaking of openings, are you at least going to continue with having a couple killed at the beginning of the film?
That's a strong possibility. [Laughs] Certainly, you will recognize what Bob calls the DNA of the film: a very complex murder mystery, a shocking action picture, wonderful humor based on character, and lots of surprises, as well as a movie that kind of copies itself. It's a pretty amazing script.

What is your opinion of where the horror genre has gone these past 10 years?
It feels like the end of an era of a certain type of film. There are series of films, a lot of sequels, and a lot of remakes, and part of the humor of Scream 4 is when characters comment on that. "Enough of Saw 25 and all!" [Laughs] A lot of films, directors, and studios are the butts of some of the jokes. In order to figure out what's happening around them, the characters have to figure out where the genre of horror is. So this is a look at horror after 10 years of a lot of sequels rather than original films coming up year after year. One film is successful, and then they make 25 of them. I think it's time for something new. I've done remakes of my own films, too, with The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes, but we feel it's time for something new and different, and that's what this film is going to be.

But then is it ironic that this is the fourth film in a series?
Yeah, but I've never felt like these are sequels. 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.

As for the poster's tagline, "New decade, new rules," are the new rules going to specifically comment on what's happened these last 10 years with horror movies?
It's very much about the last 10 years, and where we are right now. "New decade, new rules" is very much the keynote of the film, that is, trying to figure out what sort of rules (the new Ghostface) is following. How do we fight this killer without a road map? We have to figure out where we are.

Are you returning to Santa Rosa, Calif., to shoot?
We're actually going to Michigan. We found a wonderful small town that looks very much like the town we had in Northern California. Frankly, the tax breaks in Michigan are enormous, so we'll be able to put a lot more movie on the screen.

But this Michigan town is still supposed to represent (the series' fictional town of) Woodsboro?
Yeah. I guess I just gave something away. [Laughs]

Can we count on Scream 4 remaining an R-rated movie with blood and guts and all that fun stuff?
I think that's safe to say. I've very excited about it. At this point in my career, Scream is one of the longest running stories I've told. It's fascinating to still have actors who are very much into continuing their roles and have great chemistry. Part of the reason these three characters are still alive is because they're so great. We haven't wanted to kill them.

And, should Scream 4 become a hit, you are signed on for Scream 5 and 6, right?
Yeah, I'm signed on for the duration.

[RegularKarate]

pictures

[polkablues]

Would you have preferred "flickershows"?

[Pubrick]

scorsese says pictures too, i think it's ok for old folks. i hate hearing young ppl talk like that. i kinda do the same when i'm talking about music, i like to say "tracks" instead of songs. but i don't give a shit about music and i don't know any real music buffs so it's ok.

about this film, i think it sounds GREAT. maybe i'm giving too much credit to wes craven but he's shown himself to really blow shit out of the water when you would expect something to really just be DEAD in the water.. for example his final Nightmare, Wes Craven's New Nightmare.. that's an underrated classic that flopped or whatever but predicted EVERYTHING that happened in the mid to late 90s after scream.

scream was slick and new and had great attitude. it's the best representation of humour and pop culture of that time. unfortunately because of its success there's probly some kid who's never seen it and only knows it from the 50 times he's seen Scary Movie. there's a huge difference in the attitude of those films.. Scary Movie is pathetic and mean, it's to humour what Hostel and Saw sequels are to tasteful visuals. it's crass garbage.

what excites me about what Craven is talking about is it's really a great idea if done right. i don't KNOW exactly how it's gonna be done right but it's a legitimate challenge to take on. what has horror become in the last 10 years? number one -- we must all realise of course Craven is saying HORROR but he really means MOVIES and pop culture sensibilities in general. one thing is identifying any new elements of the winning formula behind popular films (the idea behind sequels), but another and more important thing is to use them well and at the same time COMMENT on how they are being used.

any film that repeats what another has done must be striving to have the same formula. saw 2 is saw 1 is saw 5. so does it get the credit of illuminating what the winning formula is just because it tries to repeat it? not that i liked the original Saw or Hostel or any of that crass garbage shit, but you see here the ambition of Craven and how it's so much more than anyone else is trying. THE MISTAKE would be to look at post-scream films in a pre-scream way. they also can't really talk about SEQUELS cos they already did that in 2 and three. i think what Craven is talking about when he says "new decade new rules" is not just trying to show the new trends or simply reference them or to simply replicate them -- that would be just a remake/sequel/parody -- but identify the new rules FOR talking about what is going on.

the old rule came from a self-conscious seinfeldian background. they feel a bit insulated now when we think about it cos films in the 90s were still only concerned with replicating themselves. this was true of sequels, remakes, rip-offs parodies since The Godfather and Jaws.. but now it's something else. i think that's the first acknowledgement. we all know it's something else. something is not right with creative production. Pulp Fiction and Seinfeld gave way to original Scream. original Scream and the first 10 years of the Simpsons gave way to Being John Malkovich. the 90s make sense in lots of ways.. but this is not transferrable to a decade where everything is a sequel, a remake, a clone.

Scream 4 has to contend with the matrix and its sequels, the star wars prequels, the lord of the rings and now the hobbit films, harry potter, the vampire explosion, torture porn and eli roth.. the difference in substance between the 90s and the 00s is the difference between Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds. if Scream 4 can even begin to approach a new era of substance (from within the belly of the beast itself) it will be great.

but something tells me it will not, cos they've been contracted to do 2 more if it's successful. :S