Last summer, word from the set of “Scream 4” was ugly. Franchise creator Kevin Williamson, who originally penned the script, departed the film, with Ehren Kruger (“Scream 3,” “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen“) coming in and wielding his mighty shitty pen all over the script. The rumor was that the changes pissed off the cast of the film, so much so that Lauren Graham actually left the film because her role had been greatly reduced and Hayden Panettiere was frustrated that her character had been “dumbed down significantly.” Ever since, there have been rumors of reshoots and rewrites and other signs pointing to a plagued production, but with the film around the corner, Williamson has finally addressed his exit from the film describing as just a routine blowup between friends.
“Oh, I got in a big fight with Bob [Weinstein]. God love him. I’ve worked with the man for 16 years out of my 16-year career. We get in some fights. We’re a very dysfunctional family over there at the Weinstein Co. We got into a massive fight creatively and we hugged it out and then we moved on,” Williamson explained to EW.
So then, what was his whole exit about? Looks like Williamson is playing ye olde “scheduling conflict” card while saying that strong opinions and stubborn wills throughout the group of filmmakers caused the dust up.
“I felt strongly about this and he felt strongly about that and then I did this and that wasn’t right. Everyone was second-guessing everything because everyone wanted it to be so perfect. That’s exactly what happened. The one thing that Bob and I connect on very basically, why we’ve worked successfully together for 16 years, is we’re passionate. And no one is more passionate than Bob Weinstein. And it is that passion that allows you to make a movie where he will believe in you and trust in you and it’s also that passion that can cause fights and cause struggle,” Williamson elaborated. “For 16 years, he’s kept me gainfully employed. I love him. Yes, we got into the fight, but then the big clincher came: Contractually, I had signed on to do ‘The Vampire Diaries‘ [Williamson’s series for The CW]. You know, the little thing called first and second position? I was in first position to do ‘Vamprie Diaries’ and second position to do ‘Scream 4.’ So guess what? It was a contractual thing. Warner Bros. called up and they said, “Dude where are you? You have a show that’s on the air — where are you?” I did double duty as much as I could but ‘The Vampire Diaries’ was also very important to me.”
Anyway, with the film coming out in a couple of weeks it just looks like everyone is playing nice and so we probably won’t get the real deal of what went down and caused the arguments until a couple years later when box office numbers aren’t at stake. The original cast is back — David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox— plus fresh meat Anna Paquin and Kristen Bell along with more newcomers like Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Rory Culkin, Marley Shelton, Adam Brody, Anthony Anderson and Alison Brie. It’s yet another meta-horror movie with new rules and whatever. “Scream 4” opens on April 15th.
