Courtney Cox returning for Scream reboot!
Just over two months after announcing that franchise veteran David Arquette would be returning for the highly-anticipated reboot, it’s now been revealed that Courteney Cox is set to return for the next Scream film from directing duo Radio Silence (Ready or Not) as strong-willed journalist Gale Riley (née Weathers)!
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Welcome back to Woodsboro, @CourteneyCox. It’s going to be a SCREAM. https://t.co/KrV1ib465Z pic.twitter.com/uuHC3yMnZw
— Paramount Pictures (@ParamountPics) July 31, 2020
The 56-year-old actress becomes the second actor from the original franchise to sign on for the fifth film in the series after Arquette, Cox’s real-life ex-husband and in-film husband, signed on to reprise his role as Sheriff Dewey Riley in May and lead heroine Neve Campbell still in talks to return.
While plot details are currently scarce, it is being reported that the film will follow “a woman returning to her home town to try to find out who has been committing a series of vicious crimes.”
“It’s impossible to fully express how much Wes Craven’s work and the Scream movies in particular mean to us as fans and have influenced us as storytellers,” Radio Silence said in a previous statement. “Kevin Williamson’s incredible stories have entertained and inspired us for decades and we’re insanely honored to have the opportunity to be a part of the cinematic world Wes and Kevin so brilliantly created together. Jamie and Guy’s amazing script does that legacy justice and we’re so excited to bring the next chapter of Scream to life.”
The new film will be produced by Project X Entertainment’s James Vanderbilt (Zodiac), who is also co-writing the screenplay with Guy Busick (Ready or Not), as well as Paul Neinstein and William Sherak for Spyglass, with original screenwriter Kevin Williamson executive producing with Radio Silence’s third member Chad Villella.
The first film, released in 1996, was a surprise smash upon its debut, helping to revive the horror genre for the decade and becoming the highest-grossing slasher movie of all-time until it was dethroned by last year’s Halloween reboot. The first’s success spawned a franchise that includes three sequels, the first of which remained equally as successful as the first while the previous two saw middling box office returns and mixed reviews.
After years of struggling to get another film off the ground, MTV picked up a series adaptation that became a cult hit, with two well-received seasons from fans before it was passed off to VH1 for its rebooted third season, which saw mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and audiences alike, but was a minor improvement in the ratings from the second season.
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The Scream revival marks the second major horror franchise reboot Spyglass is working on, with the studio developing a remake of the Clive Barker cult horror classic Hellraiser, with David S. Goyer (Terminator: Dark Fate) attached to pen the script.
Neve Campbell (Party of Five, The Craft) has played Sidney Prescott in the original blockbuster hit Scream way back in 1996. Since then, she became the face of the popular slasher franchise as she also starred in three follow-up sequels. The most recent entry, Scream 4, released in 2011 and grossed $97 million worldwide on a $40 million budget. Campbell recently appeared in Netflix’s House of Cards and the film Castle in the Ground.
