Sci-Fi Film and Television Developments

Scream 4

8/25/10 - Anna Paquin and Kristen Bell will make cameos in Scream 4.  The cameos are in similar nature to that of Drew Barrymore's in the original Scream. In the 1996 movie opening, Barrymore was forced to play a phone game with the killer.  Also, the movie was originally scheduled to have a 42-day shoot, with the last day occurring on Labor Day Weekend. Now, the actors have having their stays extended to the new wrap date, September 24.

7/1/10 - Adam Brody, Marley Shelton and Erik Knudsen have joined the cast of Scream 4, which began shooting this week in Michigan, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  The film reunites director Wes Craven with Kevin Williamson.  Original cast members Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courteney Cox are also returning, though the plan is to pass the baton to a new generation of slasher victims, namely Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Rory Culkin and Nico Tortorella.  Brody will play a cop recently graduated from college who was raised on the "CSI" TV series.  Shelton will play a deputy who knew Campbell's character in high school. Lake Bell had been in negotiations for the role.  Knudsen will have a role similar to the one played by Jamie Kennedy in the first two installments, a character who is familiar with horror movie conventions and a provider of comic relief.  To preserve the identity of the killer, Craven and Williamson are operating under several layers of secrecy, including not sending the script to agencies.

5/28/10 - Emma Roberts has been cast as the new leading lady in Scream 4, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Roberts will play the cousin of returning Scream star Neve Campbell, and essentially the heroine in the rebooted horror franchise.  Wes Craven is returning to the director's chair and Kevin Williamson is back writing the script. Shooting begins June in Michigan.

3/23/10 - Dimension Films said Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette will reprise their roles for Scream 4, which will be written by Kevin Williamson and directed by horror master Wes Craven. The movie is expected to land in theaters on April 15, 2011.  Production will begin this spring.  The Scream movies, which revolve around a young woman named Sidney Prescott (Campbell) who is stalked by a serial killer.  Details of the Scream 4 plot with its Ghostface killer are being kept under wraps, but Craven said the script has "the most hair-raising scares" he has seen since the first films.

11/16/09 - Courteney Cox said she's excited about returning to the horror genre in Scream 4, the upcoming slasher sequel being written by Kevin Williamson, who wrote the first two films in the popular horror trilogy. "There are really only a few of us that survived," says Cox.  Cox and Arquette will reprise their roles as overzealous reporter Gale Weathers and bumbling sheriff Dwight "Dewey" Riley in the fourth installment, along with 36-year-old actress Neve Campbell, who starred as the series' heroine, Sidney Prescott. Cox shrugged off rumors that Weathers and Dewey would be killed off at the beginning of the film.  "They're probably back living in Woodsboro," Cox said. "I think that he's probably still deputy, and I've had a lot of kids. I don't know. I'm probably miserable, and then I'm sure a lot of murdering will happen."

8/5/09 – SCI FI Wire reported that Scream writer Kevin Williamson offered details about the proposed fourth installment he is writing, which he envisions as the beginning of a new trilogy of tongue-in-cheek horror films and which may feature original stars Courteney Cox and David Arquette.  "Oh, it's a new trilogy," Williamson said. "It's 10 years later. It is Gale Weathers 10 years later."  Cox played Weathers, the local reporter who became a sensation for covering the killings in the 1996 original.  Arquette played Deputy Dewey, and Williamson accidentally suggested where Dewey would be in Scream 4.  "Sheriff Dewey, I'm sorry, Deputy Dewey, oops," Williamson backpedaled. "It's Dewey and Gale, and that's it from the original cast. They met on the set. We all watched it happen, so the idea that we got 'em back and that their relationship is sort of the emotional core of Scream 4 ... so it'll be a lot of fun."  Williamson also plans to bring back the "ghost face" mask that every killer wore in the Scream films. "Yes, it will be, but there may be another one," he said.

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