A new featurette from Paramount Pictures for the upcoming fifth installment ofScreampays tribute to late director Wes Craven.
Craven was and continues to be an iconic staple in the horror genre. He not only directed the first 4Screamfilms, he also wrote and directed the 1984 filmThe Nightmare on Elm Street. Other notable films includeThe Last House on the Left,The Hills Have Eyes,The People Under the Stairs, andRed Eye. He passed away in 2015 after a battle with brain cancer.
RELATED:How American Horror Story: Double Feature Could’ve Been Improved
The featurette from Paramount Pictures entitled “For Wes” focuses on the newScream’s desire to honor the legacy of Craven. “Wes Craven, you always think of him as the king of horror,” Courtney Cox said. “He is an incredible director, but he’s also an incredible human.” Cox is one of severalScreamalums who will return to the new addition to the franchise. She will bejoined by Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Marley Shelton, and Roger L. Jackson, who will once again voice Ghostface. The fifth installment of theScreamfranchise will be directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett.
Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett appeared in the featurette to discuss how they tackled thisnew addition to Craven’sScreamfranchise. “Anything we got right in this movie is because of Wes Craven,” Bettinelli-Olpin said. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett were joined in the featurette by long-termScreamproducer Kevin Williamson, who wrote the first installment of the film’s franchise.Screamalum including Cox, Campbell, and Arquette also discussed Craven’s impact in the featurette along with franchise newcomer Melissa Barrera.
Cox, Arquette, and Campbell all discussed what it felt like returning to the horror franchise without Craven in the featurette. “I had been apprehensive about doing another one without Wes, but Matt and Tyler really wanted to honor him,” Campbell said. “It’s fun to get into it again.” Arquette found himself impressed by the imprint Craven left on newScreamdirectors Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, which may have eased his mind in returning to the franchise, similar to Campbell’s own feelings. As another star who worked with Craven onfourScreamfilms, Cox found Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’sScreamas “a perfect way to reinvent this movie.”
The newestScreaminstallment will be a new era for the franchise, as it is the first without Craven. Itwill introduce newScreamcharacterswho hope to carry on the reputation of the franchise in years to come. “How this new cast connects to the legacy cast, that’s what’s going to make this movie super special,” Williamson said. “And I was hoping that they were going to dedicate the film to Wes, and they did.”
Screamreleases in theaters on May 20, 2025.
MORE:Wes Craven’s Favorite Horror Movie Villain Wasn’t One Of His Own
