After rumors swirled for a while and then died down, it’s official: We’re getting a reboot of the Scream franchise and Matthew Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are set to direct.
THR brings the news that the directing duo, who tag-teamed last year’s critically loved cult and box office hit Ready or Not, have officially signed on to direct the horror thriller. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, along with partner Chad Villela (who will be a producer on the reboot), comprise filmmaking group Radio Silence.
Spyglass Media will be behind the reboot. Spyglass co-founders Andy Mitchell and Milos Brajovic snagged the rights to the Scream franchise through their Lantern Entertainment label in 2018 during the Weinstein Co.’s bankruptcy fire sale. As of right now, we don’t know their plans for the franchise or whether the next movie will be a true reboot or a sequel continuation of the series. With a number of horror franchises getting the reboot treatment, like David Gordon Green’s take on Halloween and Chris Rock tackling a new Saw story with Spiral, now would be a great time for Spyglass to try a fresh take on the franchise that’s already seen four movies and a TV series.
If they do, you can count on Blumhouse to be one of the production companies disappointed by the news. Last year, producer Jason Blum expressed his interest in Blumhouse rebooting the Scream franchise – at least his hopes to tackle Hellraiser are still alive and well. Still, things are going swimmingly for them with resurrecting Universal’s classic monsters franchise, so they’re doing just fine.
If Spyglass does opt for an entirely new take on Scream, it will be really fun to see what Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett bring to the table. Ready or Not was easily one of the most entertaining movies of 2019, a perfect balance between thrills, laughs and blood splatters. Their style of horror-comedy perfectly adapts to the Scream franchise, which reinvigorated the slasher franchise in the 1990s while popularizing self-referential meta-humor in the horror genre.
In any case, I’m looking forward to seeing if Ghostface’s mask stays the same or if it gets redesigned for a new era.
