Ryan Murphy is keeping a firm grip on small-screen horror. The co-creator of American Horror Story is on track to ensure that his next series, Scream Queens, will follow in the footsteps of his aforementioned smash hit. In addition to adopting the anthology format of AHS, Scream Queens is accruing an equally impressive cast that genre fans are gonna love.
According to numerous sources, the 15-episode series will be led by bona fide horror legend Jamie Lee Curtis, and fledgling final girl, Emma Roberts. Both actresses have dallied with the dark side on more than one occasion. In fact, Curtis emerged on the film scene in John Carpenter’s 1978 Halloween. Before long she became a slasher pin-up, after starring turns in Terror Train, The Fog and Prom Night during the late 70s and early 80s. It wasn’t until the underrated reboot of the Halloween franchise, Halloween: H20, in 1998 that she re-surfaced as a scream queen.
While she might not have as many blood-soaked credits chalked up, Roberts is certainly on her way. Making her mark in Scream 4 as the manipulative Jill, she’s made appearances in Murphy’s American Horror Story: Coven and this season’s Freak Show. It’s a very intriguing move to incorporate Curtis and Roberts into the show as its two leads; after all, will they play versions of themselves in a meta-stab at their careers? Or will this be a straight-laced slasher? Whichever route the show takes, both actresses lend weight to this already-enticing series.
Meanwhile, back to the specifics of Scream Queens, the story of which “revolves around a college campus which is rocked by a series of murders.” Production is gearing up now, and the one-hour episodes are all slated to shoot in spring 2015 for a fall 2015 release date. A co-venture between 20th Century Fox Television and Ryan Murphy Productions, Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan all share a co-creator credit and will executive produce along with Dante Di Loreto.