Things Nobody Wants: SCREAM To Get An MTV Series

According to the Hollywood Reporter yesterday, it appears MTV will be sending a television version of the film franchise SCREAM into production.  If we want to be a bit inside baseball, this isn't the first SCREAM television program.  THE FOLLOWING, airing on FOX, is supposedly a reworked version of what Kevin Williamson had in mind for a 5th SCREAM film before the Weinstein's meddled and he quit SCREAM 4.  If you were ever wondering his why he quit or what his original intentions were for SCREAM 4 and you've seen THE FOLLOWING, you can kind of guess how the 4th installment was supposed to play out.



There's no details as to what the content will entail.  Will it be a season long whodunit akin to Harper's Island?  Or will each episode be a standalone mystery?  Will we get Dewey, Gale, Sydney and Randy 2.0 or a batch of newbies?  Who knows...and quite frankly...who cares?

I have always been a fan of the SCREAM franchise, no matter how cool it is to hate on it now or spit on it for creating a "self awareness" in characters in horror movies for the following decade.  But in the 90s, horror was in the shitter, and the slasher movie even further down than that.  Prior to SCREAM were downright critical and box office failures for the popular horror franchises of HALLOWEEN (Curse of Michael Myers) and HELLRAISER (Bloodline).  SCREAM rejuvenated the genre completely.  It breathed a whole new life and brought some quality and innovation back to horror.  I'll always be thankful for that.

This MTV SCREAM TV series, its not for me.  And with MTV being the network its going to air on, I know that right away.  Granted, I'll watch an episode or 2 to start out, but I doubt I'm going to make it past the pilot (if it even goes to full series).  It will probably annoy me and make me cringe.  Its likely going to be a sourpuss version with lots of "hot young talent" that are hired on looks WAY before talent. Its obvious this isn't going to be of Bryan Fuller-HANNIBAL mold in bringing a horror franchise to the small screen.  But I know right away, that this is not going to be geared toward me, a 31 year old husband and father.  Its going to go for that youth demographic that I am generations separated from and probably very out of touch with.  So, for them, I hope its an enjoyment and maybe they go back and visit the films that were responsible for this series.

They are trying to get Wes Craven to direct the pilot, and if the money's right, Craven will always do it.