Scream 5 Confirmation: David Arquette Returns
By George Robbins
There have been countless stories that have come out of this entire pandemic detailing how difficult things have been for the entertainment industry. Movie theaters have been completely shut down for two months now with the best estimates for mass re-openings being some time in early July. So with movies closed until the summer, studios have been forced to move their movie release schedules around to accommodate to the fact theaters are shut down. On top of that, many movies and shows in the midst of production have been forced to cease all production until it is yet again safe to continue working. In other words, it is tough to be in movie and television production these days.
Though there is also good new to go along with the bad news that has been plaguing the industry recently. Companies that have decided to release their films early to VOD, or Video on Demand, have managed to recoup some of the money they lost from not having a full theatrical release. Some companies have even found success in the release of films through PVOD releases. These Premium Video on Demand releases are movies that have not had any kind of theatrical releases and are being directly released digitally. They are distinct in form from direct-to-video movies in the fact that their production value is the same as theatrical films since they were supposed to be released that way. Also on the good news side of things is the fact that we keep getting news on newer films in development.
New movies in development are nothing new to the industry, obviously, but it is nice to know that people are still working on moving the industry forward while it is at a standstill. There have been announcements for a number of different movies at this point and many of them have been long awaited sequels. Now, it has been confirmed that we will be getting another ‘Scream’ movie to add to the slasher franchise. We knew already that talks were underway regarding the next film in the franchise and the actors that would be returning to play a part in the film. They have been hinting for years that there would one day be another chapter in the franchise, but it would not be until now that it was actually announced.
After Wes Craven, the original creator of the ‘Scream’ franchise, died it was unknown whether the story would continue on at any point. That was, however, until Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett – the directors of last year’s horror-comedy-thriller ‘Ready or Not’- became attached to some new project related to the series back in March. It was unknown if this was, in fact, the next chapter in the ‘Scream’ saga or if it would be a spin-off of some sort. We now know that it is actually ‘Scream 5’ and that they have been trying to get Neve Campbell to reprise her role as Sidney Prescott by saying that the film will be shot in the spirit of Wes Craven. While it may not be known if she will truly reprise her role, we do know that David Arquette has decided to sign onto the project and reprise his role as Dewey Riley. So now, all we can do is hope that the rest of the cast decides to come back as well.