Secrecy on Scream – the upcoming relaunch of the horror franchise, which we’re all just going to call Scream 5 – is so tight that even the movie’s cast don’t know for sure who the next Ghostface is.
The identity of the masked trivia-obsessed serial killer is always a closely guarded reveal that the filmmakers have to work hard to keep under wraps, as fans are desperate to uncover it every time a new Scream is in the works. And for this effort, the stars received multiple versions of the script so that things could remain a secret.
Producer William Sherak spoke to CinemaBlend recently and made clear that “most of the cast” have no idea if they got the actual script or a fake one. Presumably, only the actors who play the real killer and the characters that face off with them know what’s what, as it seems that everyone else is in the dark.
“I think the two things to remember for us. One is there are multiple versions of the draft out there and most of the cast don’t know if they have the right version or not. So we’ve been playing that game with them as well. And the fun of a Scream movie is that everyone is guilty until proven innocent, not the other way around. So the goal is to keep that going for as long as possible and have fun with it.”
Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett took over the reins from the late, great Wes Craven for this outing, with original screenwriter Kevin Williamson on hand to exec produce. In fact, it was him who gave them the idea to use multiple scripts to fool the actors and online leakers, as it was something that he and Craven did on the earlier sequels in the franchise. Scream was one of the pioneers of this concept, too, which is now widely used in the industry. Marvel, for instance, employed the tactic with Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.
Neve Campbell (Sidney Prescott), Courteney Cox (Gale Weathers) and David Arquette (Sheriff Dewey Riley) are back for the fifth film, along with Marley Shelton as Scream 4′s Deputy Judy Hicks. Newcomers, meanwhile, include Melissa Barrera, Jenny Ortega, Jack Quaid, Dylan Minnette, Kyle Gallner and Jasmin Savoy Brown.
Who’s going to live and who’s going to die? And who’s going to be doing the killing? Unfortunately, we’ve got a while to go before we find out, as Scream isn’t due to hit theaters until January 14th, 2022.