Whassup? After a long stay in the grave, theScary Moviefranchise is rising from the dead.Deadline reportsthatMarlon Wayans,Shawn Wayans, andKeenen Ivory Wayans, who wrote and directed the first two films in the horror-spoof franchise, are reviving the series at Paramount.
Scary Moviebegan as a spoof of 1990s slasher franchises likeScreamandI Know What You Did Last Summer, so with those films returning to theaters, it’s only appropriate thatScary Movieshould return as well. The film will be produced by Paramount andMiramax(which released the original films under their Dimension Films banner), with the three Wayans brothers returning to write the script. Said the Wayans in a statement: “We couldn’t be more excited to be a part of the newScary Movieand work with each other again. This is a franchise we created more than 20 years ago. We remember people laughing in the aisles and hope to see that happen again. We look forward to working withJonathan Glickmanand his team at the new Miramax to bring these laughs to theaters, where they belong. It’s a double reunion.” The film aims to begin shooting next year, and is intended for a theatrical release.
What Are the ‘Scary Movie’ Movies About?
A spoof of the teen slasher movies of the 1990s, 2000’sScary Movieis largely a parody of the firstScream, as a masked killer picks off the student body of the local high school. On the case are Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris, in her breakout role) and Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall). Although the film’s tagline was “No Mercy. No Shame. No Sequel.",Scary Movie 2followed a year later, spoofing an array of supernatural horror films, includingThe Haunting,Stigmata, andWhat Lies Beneath. The Wayans-lessScary Movie 3followed in 2003, withAirplane!‘sDavid Zuckerat the helm and a script co-written by a pre-ChernobylCraig Mazin; it parodiedM. Night Shyamalan’sSigns, among other contemporary films. 2006’sScary Movie 4retained the previous film’s creative team, and took onWar of the WorldsandThe Grudge. The fifth and final installment of the franchise,Scary Movie 5, was helmed byThe Best Man’sMalcolm D. Lee, and did not bring back Faris and Hall, who’d starred in all four previous films. It featuredAshley TisdaleandSimon Rexin a parody of theParanormal Activityfranchise.
Although they were increasingly unpopular with critics - the first film has the highest Rotten Tomatoes rating of the series, with 51%, whileScary Movie 5features a horrifying 4% - they were largely successful with audiences, earning nearly $900 million USD at the global box office. They also launched the careers of parody maestrosJason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, who were credited as screenwriters on the first film after writing an early draft and launched their own series of increasingly unsuccessful spoof movies.
The reboot of theScary Movieseries is in development and isslated to shoot next year. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates and see Marlon Wayans post below.
