Years of promising rumours have finally come to fruition as the long-awaited sequel to Scream 4, the aptly titled Scream 5, has finally been confirmed to be in production with Spyglass Media Group.
Historically, Scream has been distributed by Dimension Films, which was founded by disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein’s brother, Bob. Although, after years of difficulty trying to get the project off the ground, the death of Wes Craven, and perhaps, on a more speculative note, the stigma that dogs the Weinstein name, all attempts for a sequel amounted to nothing until this year, with fresh new blood brought on board, as well as a few familiar faces.
It was first reported last year that Blumhouse founder, owner and horror producer extraordinaire Jason Blum had been eagerly pursuing the Hellraiser and Scream franchises, with the latter drawing particular attention in the media. Later that November it was then announced that Spyglass had ultimately attained the rights, consequently announcing Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett as directors in March, who are best known for their work on the 2019 hit comedy horror Ready or Not. More recently, only this month in fact, Mexican actress Melissa Barrera was cast in an undisclosed role.
Scream 5 will also see the return of franchise mainstays David Arquette and Courtney Cox, who have been playing their respective characters since Scream first released in 1996. However, the franchise’s central actress, the Canadian Scream queen herself, Neve Campbell, has yet to commit to another appearance as the legendary heroine Sidney Prescott. Despite the lack of certainty, the actress has offered an olive branch of hope to fans of the film series by acknowledging that she has indeed been in talks to return, but nothing has been confirmed as of yet.
Campbell’s tentative return to the franchise has, of course, lead to an abundance of speculation regarding the size of her role, whether she will bow out as a leading character for the first time, or even if she will be the first to die in its opening scene. Whatever the case, Campbell has been somewhat hesitant to return given the sad absence of Wes Craven, but she asserted her confidence in the new directors, who even sent a letter assuring her of their desire to honour the late horror director’s legacy.
With no word on Campbell’s casting, it is safe to assume that talks are still ongoing, but with the pace at which the cast and crew are being announced, we likely won’t have to wait long for news of the actress’ involvement either way.