Scream 7: directors of the previous two films were “exited” from the project

Wes Craven, director of the first four films in the Scream franchise, passed away in 2015. So when Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media teamed up to revive the franchise with the new sequel that was released in 2022, the directing duo of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett took the helm. They then returned to direct Scream VI the following year, with both of their contributions to the franchise centering on sisters Samantha and Tara Carpenter, played by Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega. During a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett confirmed that they had been planning to return to direct Scream 7 and complete a Carpenter sisters trilogy… but they mistakenly thought they could fit the production of their Universal Monsters movie Abigail (formerly known as Dracula’s Daughter) in between the making of Scream VI and Scream 7. Turns out, Spyglass wanted to get moving on Scream 7 sooner than their schedules allowed, so the directors were, as they put it, “exited” from the project.

Gillett told The Hollywood Reporter, “We got exited.” After repeating that line, Bettinelli-Olpin said, “We’ll be sad that there’s not going to be an end to the Sam Carpenter story, but in our minds, we designed Scream VI so that the story feels complete.“

It’s a good thing they did that, because neither of the Carpenter sisters are going to be in the movie. Spyglass and Paramount had hired Freaky and Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon to direct the sequel in the absence of Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, but then things fell apart. Ortega allegedly asked for a substantial pay raise – and as we saw when Neve Campbell dropped out of Scream VI due to a pay dispute, these pay issues don’t tend to work out. Then Barrera was fired from the project after comments she made about the Israel-Hamas war didn’t go over well with executives at Spyglass. Landon dropped out the of the project soon after. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett told The Hollywood Reporter that they had been in contact with Landon and discussed Scream 7 with him before he left the project. Barrera is the subject of the overall article, and she told the outlet, “I actually don’t know what happened (with Landon). He was very excited about it, and he had great ideas for it, so it makes me sad (that he dropped out).“

Scream 7 had to be reworked after the Carpenter sisters were out of the story. It was recently announced that Neve Campbell is returning to the lead as franchise heroine Sidney Prescott. We’ve heard that executives were hoping to get her Scream 3 co-star Patrick Dempsey to join her in this one, reprising the role of LAPD Detective Mark Kincaid – and industry scooper Daniel Richtman reports that Dempsey is “in talks” to do just that. Richtman’s sources also claim that Courteney Cox is locked in to return as author and reporter Gale Weathers… which would make sense, because Cox has never missed out on any of these movies.

Kevin Williamson, who wrote the screenplay for the original Scream, is set to direct this new sequel. In addition to writing the original Scream, Williamson has also written I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream 2, The Faculty, and Halloween H20 (where his script contributions were uncredited). He wrote the initial drafts of Scream 3 and Scream 4, then those both received some major rewrites. For Scream 7, he’ll be working from a screenplay by 2022’s Scream and Scream VI writer Guy Busick, who crafted the story with his co-writer on the fifth and sixth films, James Vanderbilt. (Vanderbilt is also a producer on the most recent sequels.) Williamson made his directing debut with the 1999 thriller Teaching Mrs. Tingle. Twenty-five years later, Scream 7 will be his second directing credit.

Even though they were “exited”, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett will still receive executive producer credits on the new film alongside their Radio Silence production company partner Chad Villella. As for Barrera, she doesn’t entirely rule out the idea of her returning to the Scream franchise someday, but knows the odds are against it. “I’ve learned to never say never, but also a lot of things would have to happen for Sam to come back. For now, next page, next chapter, and then we’ll see what the future holds.“

What do you think of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett being removed from Scream 7 because executives couldn’t wait for them to finish working on Abigail? Let us know by leaving a comment below.