New Scream movie directors confirm R-rating, Easter eggs, & more

Last Updated on August 10, 2021

The folks over at the Scream franchise fan site HelloSidney.com were able to score an interview with Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the directors of the new Scream movie that's heading toward a January 14, 2022 theatrical release, and the conversation they had was quite interesting. Along the way they confirmed that the new Scream will be receiving an R rating and will feature Easter egg callbacks to the previous films, while also being accessible for viewers who have never seen a Scream movie before. You can see the interview in the video embedded below.

Although the new film is simply titled Scream, it is a follow-up to the other four Screams, with franchise stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette back in the roles of Sidney Prescott, Gale Weathers, and Dewey Riley. Scream 4's Marley Shelton is also reprising her role of Judy Hicks.

Speaking with HelloSidney, Gillett described this Scream as "a love letter to all the movies and, of course, to Wes (Craven)", but said the film takes "its own unique risks" as well. 

Bettinelli-Olpin said, 

We had to make a movie that is a standalone good movie. It has to be entertaining in and of itself, full-stop, end of story, but also has to be a part of a franchise that has existed for 25 years. … A lot of it came from the script, where the entry point is accessible to everybody. This isn’t a movie that you need to have seen 27 other movies to understand … But your experience will be extremely heightened the more knowledge you have of those previous four. We have a ton of Easter eggs in this thing, we have so many little moments and nods that all tie to the previous four, so there's a bit of a puzzle aspect to it going into it from knowing the first four. But then hopefully if you don't catch those things, it doesn't matter, it doesn't take away from your experience."

The directors said the film will also be packed with references to other horror movies, like previous entries were, and 

it wouldn't be a Scream movie if it wasn’t self-referential and didn’t talk about, you know, where the genre is at in a kind of pop culture sense. We can speak about where we think the current state of horror is … We talk about this all the time, horror is at one of, if not the highest, level that it's ever been playing in popular culture. … It feels like every horror movie that comes out is a movie for everyone, it's no longer like you're a weirdo if you go to horror. They're the biggest movies in the world besides Marvel."

The returning stars are joined in the cast by Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Mason Gooding, Dylan Minnette, Jack Quaid, Mikey Madison, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Kyle Gallner, and Sonia Ammar. Barrera’s character is named Samantha Carpenter. The actress has said,

[Directors] Matt [Bettinelli-Olpin] and Tyler [Gillett] bring their freshness to it, but we’re honoring Wes [Craven]. I think it’ll make the fans happy, but also bring in a new audience to the movies, which I’m excited about.”

The screenplay for this new Scream was written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick. Vanderbilt also produced the film for Project X Entertainment, alongside Paul Neinstein and William Sherak. Chad Villella and Kevin Williamson, writer of the original Scream, serve as executive producers.

While the previous films were released by Dimension, this Scream is coming to us from Paramount and Spyglass.