Family connections and trilogy plans
Where better to get a little Scream 4 shout-out than Spike TV’s Scream Awards? Director Wes Craven and stars Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Emma Roberts took the stage to unveil the shriek-eriffic first look at the ten-years-later sequel, and Shock Till You Drop caught a few quick moments to hear Craven and Roberts holler its praises.
“It was actually very easy,” to jump right back into the horror franchise, Craven said of reuniting with Campbell, Arquette and Courteney Cox. “Especially having those three important people, the core actors from the other three films. It just kind of fell right back into place. All of us fell back into our previous characters.”
“I think had been thinking about it a good deal at the time because we knew it was coming down the road,” Craven added. “And the script was great, so it gave them a good framework for where their characters were.”
In the Scream tradition, a fresh croup of newbies â including Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Rory Culkin, Marley Shelton, Adam Brody, Alison Brie and Anthony Anderson â will be providing the potential body count for Ghost Face, and Roberts revealed her character will have a familial connection to the franchise’s enduring last-woman-standing.
“I play Sidney Prescott’s â Neve Campbell’s â cousin, named Jill,” said Roberts, “and she’s like the girl next door, kind of â the new, the younger Sidney Prescott, if you will.”
Roberts said she became a major fan of the original film â at least, the parts she was able to watch during her first viewing. “I loved it! I got so scared! I watched half the movie with my eyes closed, and my friends were like, ‘Emma, you’re gonna be in the next one. You can’t be covering your eyes while you’re watching the movie.'”
Even being part of the fourth film and seeing just how the frights were crafted behind the scenes didn’t diminish her fear factor. “I was kinda scared on set sometimes,” she admitted. “It just made it even more exciting.”
Craven said he got used to his young stars telling him how the Scream films haunted them over the years. “I’ve had a lot of the cast tell me, ‘You know, you gave me nightmares, or ‘You scared the hell out of me!’ And I’m like, ‘Thank you very much.'”
If today’s audience is equally horrified by the franchise revival, Craven, who said he’s looking at four or five more months of editing the fourth film, confirmed he’s got plans to carve out two more sequels. “The idea is that it be the first of a new trilogy,” he said.
Source: Scott Huver
