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After Scream 4 failed to score big at the box office, some moviegoers were wondering if the franchise would finally be laid to rest. However, despite its underwhelming box office take, there has been talk of a reboot, a possible second trilogy and declarations from Harvey Weinstein and Wes Craven that Scream 5 would happen.
Although we haven’t received any new word on the potential fifth entry of the franchise in nearly two years, we did report that MTV had a Scream TV adaptation in the works about a year ago. Finally, a pilot for that TV adaptation has been ordered.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, MTV has indeed greenlit the project for a pilot and is currently in talks with Wes Craven to direct the scripted hour-long episode. If ordered to a series, the show would be slated for a summer 2014 debut.
The Scream franchise certainly seems like a good fit for MTV – at least from a demographic standpoint – but if the film series was already running out of steam, how long could the network really keep Ghostface chasing after terrified teens before its audience got bored with it too?
Having Craven – the director of the entire Scream series and numerous other horror classics – on board would certainly give the series credibility and attention off the bat, but there’s no telling how long he would stick with the program. Fans of the original franchise might prefer having writer/creator Kevin Williamson attached to the show if they had their pick. After all, it was Williamson’s tongue-and-cheek approach to the slasher genre that helped reinvent it for new audiences in the 1990s, launching the Scream franchise in the first place; plus, he also has more experience working in television (Dawson’s Creek, The Vampire Diaries). Sadly, there’s no word on if Williamson will be involved at all, and he’s currently pretty busy with Fox’s The Following.
However, considering fans of the originals are seemingly getting tired of the series, maybe adapting the concept for TV is the only way to keep it alive. With Teen Wolf and Awkward, MTV has proven that scripted series can survive on the reality TV-laden network (and can be genuinely good, to boot). And since the current pre-teen and teenage generations may not be that familiar with the Sidney Prescott saga or with Ghostface’s maniacal tendencies, then maybe there is a new audience for Scream.
We’ll have to wait and see if Scream makes it past the pilot phase, but we should have some casting news soon.