“What’s your favorite scary movie?” Ironically, the movie that quote’s from is quite often the answer.
In December 1996, “Scream” quietly entered theaters across the country with an opening weekend box office of $6 million. But it didn’t take long before people were repeating that famous line, talking about the rules of horror movies, and turning that measly $6 mil into $103 million in the U.S. alone. For a genre (horror) that rarely sees the love of box office glory, Dimension Films had a huge hit on its hands and took full advantage releasing “Scream 2″ in 1997 and “Scream 3″ in 2000. Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Deputy Dewey (David Arquette) – survivors of all three movies – became famed horror movie characters.
But in order to jump-start a franchise for a fourth time, and 11 years after the last, you must win over a new generation of movie-goers who weren’t even old enough to see the first film on the big screen. Thanks to modern technology, they can absolutely catch up on the history in several ways before watching the fictional town of Woodsboro witness yet another murder spree in “Scream 4.” Of course, with a new plot comes fresh victims, I mean faces, including Hayden Panettiere (NBC’s “Heroes”), Emma Roberts (“Nancy Drew”), Rory Culkin (“You Can Count on Me”), and Erik Knudsen (“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”).
This time, Gale and Dewey are a married couple – Dewey now Sheriff, Gale a bored journalist hungry for the days of bloodshed. Syndey is on a book tour, now an author writing about overcoming trauma. Of course, she soon returns to her hometown and all hell breaks loose.
“Scream 4″ was not an easy production, including tensions between writer Kevin Williamson and producer Bob Weinstein, the crumbling marriage of Courteney Cox and David Arquette – which resulted in a separation, but never a divorce – and an ever changing script that would often have scenes being rewritten the same day they were being shot. But the rough road to keeping this franchise alive this go-around didn’t affect the cast or crew in a negative way and ”Scream 5″ and “Scream 6″ story lines are already planned out, according to Williamson. As long as the love from fans is as strong as the cast and crew’s, we could be seeing more of the characters (those who survive) being chased down by Ghostface for years to come.
Until then, we give you a sneak peek at “Scream 4.”
