Some fans were disappointed to learn that Scream VI’s directors would be replaced for the upcoming seventh film in the franchise, with Radio Silence’s Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett opting to head down a different career path following their two successes. But the franchise is no doubt in great hands with Christopher Landon at the helm for Scream 7, and not necessarily just because he’s already an accomplished genre director of such hits as the Happy Death Day films and Netflix’s heartfelt horror-comedy We Have a Ghost. It turns out Landon’s ties to Ghostface go back to even before the original Wes Craven film was produced.
Landon, who’s the son of Highway to Heaven star Michael Landon and the brother to Yellowstone fan-favorite Jen Landon, previously spoke out about possibly bringing his talents to the franchise, sharing that he’s actually good friends with screenwriter Kevin Williamson. But while guesting on an episode of the Sirius XM podcast The Jess Cagle Show, the filmmaker dropped the awesome reveal that his input was part of the process that led to Scream being made. In his words:
When I was an intern in college, my first internship was at a production company, and they knew I was a horror fanatic, a big horror nerd. So this hot spec script came in, and they gave it to me first, ‘cause they said, ‘It’s a horror script, so you should read this and tell us if it’s any good.’ And I read like the first 15 pages, and I freaked out, ran into my boss’ office and was like, ‘This is amazing! You guys have to buy it!’ So everybody started reading it, and it was Scream, which at the time was called Scary Movie.
I can only laugh thinking about a production company middle-tier employee stumbling upon a script titled Scary Movie, then seeing Christopher Landon across the room, and having a giant idea light bulb going off above his head. But obviously the lightbulb is shaped like the Ghostface mask, even though that visual element wasn’t in the mix yet.
Landon continued, reflecting on the “full-circle” element of it all, saying:
And they bought it, and they made it. So it’s this weird full-circle moment to find myself about to direct the next one after I was like weirdly the first person to read it.
Obviously, plenty of other people were involved in turning Scream into a full-blown production, and a lot of credit goes to Dawson Creek creator Kevin Williamson’s script being so smart and savvy in the first place. So Landon isn’t claiming to be the spearheader or anything, but I don’t even want to think about a world where he landed a completely different internship, and someone else who hated horror was tasked with reading the Scary Movie script instead.
Forward progress on Scream 7 is currently unable to happen due to the ongoing WGA writers strike and SAG-AFTRA actors strike, but hopefully the horror sequel is able to jump into production as soon as possible once BTS disputes are resolved. At the moment, any and all details are basically non-existent, with fans hoping to see returning cast members such as Jenna Ortega, Melissa Barrera and Jasmin Savoy Brown, not to mention Neve Campbell, though that one might be a stretch.
Thankfully, there are plenty of other upcoming horror movies to look forward to in the meantime, and both TV networks and streaming services will be going hard on horror programming heading into Halloween season.