MTV are to develop a weekly television series out of Wes Craven's horror movie franchise "Scream", according to an exclusive at TV Line. The news almost certainly means the end of the previously promised "Scream 5" and "Scream 6" that were to continue the traumatic life of Sidney Prescott and anyone who was silly enough to go anywhere near her by now! As the rights to the slasher franchise are owned by The Weinsteins, we can only presume the poor domestic return from last year's franchise revival "Scream 4" didn't live up to their expectations and they have struck this deal with MTV to try out a less risky revenue stream for the aging franchise. Although "Scream 4" did make almost $100 million worldwide, which for a slasher isn't a bad return, it did perform the poorest of the "Scream" movies with $40 million and only ended up with half of "Scream 3's" domestic return in 2000. Last fall, series director Wes Craven was keeping the slim hopes alive for another big screen installment and The Weinsteins probably held out to see if curiosity from those who didn't visit their multiplexes last Spring would give the film a go on home video and give a sequel a fighting chance, but it looks like it wasn't to be. As for what MTV are planning, nobody knows for sure right now. This potentially could be a reboot of the 1996 original film played out over the course of several weeks with new twists and turns in the killings of Sidney's family and friends. Or, it could be set around a completely new set of characters. But a slasher weekly is a very rare thing for television and I'm kind of intrigued to see how they will approach this. I can't imagine Wes Craven would be interested in bringing his saga to the small screen or that Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox or David Arquette would have any interest. No word yet either if screenwriter/creator Kevin Williamson is on board but the "Scream" franchise is certainly his baby and he did originally pitch to The Weinsteins a new film trilogy, so he could re-work his sequels script potentially for a new pilot. Although TV Line do write;
Former MTV execs Tony DiSanto and Liz Gateley, are on the hunt for a write rwho are shepherding the project under their DiGa production shingle, are on the hunt for a writer to pen the pilot.
Suggesting they are looking for a fresh take on the 16-year-old franchise. MTV most recently rebooted "Teen Wolf" for the small screen.