Wes Craven Discusses Scream 5 and Dispels the Script Trouble Rumors of Scream 4
Posted 04.01.11 by Ryan
Scream 4 was supposed to mark the triumphant return of
director Wes Craven and franchise creator and Scream and Scream 2 screenwriter Kevin Williamson, and that was true until last July, when Williamson left the production amidst rumors of script troubles, leaving Scream 3 screenwriter Ehren Kruger to pick up the sequel's rewrites.
At the time of the writer Craven's cryptic response was to announce on Twitter that "I have not been given control of the script." Earlier this month, Craven clarified his tweet, revealing earlier this month that there was a "bumpy period when things shifted over from Kevin to Ehren" and that the script was "ultimately controlled by what the studio wants."
More recently, Scream 4 cast members Hayden Panettiere and Emma Roberts discussed the script changes, with Roberts revealing that Kruger's changes were "nothing too crazy," and were mostly just dialogue changes.
Nevertheless, talk of the script handover and Williamson's departure from the movie just won't die. In an effort to kill the rumor-mongering, particularly that Williamson left in a huff, Craven again explained what exactly happened to Bloody-Disgusting.
I kind of feel like those questions are kind of fishing for turmoil. I frankly — and I say this in absolute honesty — have never heard Kevin say [he was upset]. So whether he said something to somebody else in an interview I don't know, but Ehren came in after Kevin had done the majority of the work, and he certainly...the whole idea, all the characters, all the basic situations and scenes, were [written] by Kevin before he left. A large part of the reason that he eventually had to leave the production was that his Vampire Diaries show was starting back up, and the...network literally threatened to sue him if he didn't turn his full attention back to that.
But at that time, we had all of the script that was really, really important, and it was a matter of massaging things based on the actual locations we were able to find and things like that. So Ehren Kruger came in and did a lot of very interesting work, but it's very much about Kevin Williamson's script...stuff [added during rewrites] related to...the action and certain other things that [were] changed because of locations and things like that. So you know, it's Kevin. It's Kevin's writing and his imagination that is on display there. And I'm sure...actually I'm speculating, but it must have been painful for Kevin not to be able to stay with the film. But the process of writing...had just gone too close to the beginning of Kevin's show, and at a certain point said he could not be there anymore.
Williamson spoke of Scream 4 as the start of a new Scream trilogy back in 2009, but Craven was cautious about publicly committing himself to directing another Scream, saying, "it's so far in the future."
It's gonna be a year [before production would even start on Scream 5] at least, I would think, because even though Kevin sketched out the general notion for 5 and 6, it was not like he had a...ten-page beat sheet. So it's gonna be a matter of if Kevin is of the mind to write again in this franchise, and when will we write? My approach to [Scream 4] in general...[was] I love[d] the element of Kevin, I love[d] the element of Courteney Cox and David [Arquette] and Neve [Campbell]...I knew everybody had pretty much signed up, but until I saw a substantial amount of the script I didn't say yes. So that's my approach: "let's see the script, let's see what they come up with, and then I will or I won't."
Scream 4 opens on April 15th, and co-stars Adam Brody, Rory Culkin, Marley Shelton, Erik Knudsen, Alison Brie, Mary McDonnell, and Anthony Anderson.