Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are opening up about their departure from the Scream franchise.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett confirmed they left the Scream franchise because they wanted to make Abigail while Spyglass Media wanted to quickly move forward with Scream 7 after the sixth movie made approximately $169.1 million at the global box office.
“I don’t think that that’s an uncommon story,” Gillett said. “We talk a lot about wanting to model our careers after filmmakers like Ron Howard and Rob Reiner, who were always just making something. They were always fascinated with the next thing and ready for the next thing, and we very much want to design our careers in a similar way. And so, yeah, a month after the premiere of Scream VI, we had this go-project at Universal that we had really fallen in love with over the course of working with [co-writers] Stephen [Shields] and Guy. So it was just ready to go, and that happens, sometimes. We’ve said it many times, but we hope that Scream continues forever. It’s a franchise that we love dearly, obviously, and the more films that exist in that canon, the better, as far as we’re concerned.”
What’s going on with Scream 7?
Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett directed 2022’s Scream and 2023’s Scream VI. Following their departure, Christopher Landon was tapped to direct Scream 7; however, he stepped away from the project after Spyglass Media Group fired Melissa Barrera for supporting Palestine during the Israel—Hamas war.
With Jenna Ortega also leaving the franchise, Scream 7 is now being directed by Kevin Williamson and will see Neve Campbell reprise her role as Sidney Prescott. Courteney Cox is also in talks to return as Gale Weathers.
Regarding the Scream 7 controversy, Gillett said, “It’s just a challenge when you see people that you care about, that love something, dealing with any form of challenge. But, honestly, we were so heads-down at that time. It was just a whirlwind. Abigail happened out of a cannon, and because of the looming writers’ strike, it required so much dedication. And this is a credit to Guy, who was on the rewrite at the time. We had to hammer out a lot to build a production draft before we knew a potential strike date. And then, of course, the strike happened, and it was a crazy year to make a movie.”
Bettinelli-Olpin added, “But we felt good about how we left Scream VI. We’ve said this a lot, but we always design every movie to be a standalone, including Scream 5 and Scream VI.”
Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s Abigail is now playing in United States theaters.
