20 Things You Didn't Know About Scary Movie
17. The Screenplay Has SIX Credited Writers
Scary Movie has a staggering six credited screenwriters, as a result of two competing projects effectively being combined into one final slasher parody.
Basically, the bones of the film's script were created by Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Buddy Johnson, and Phil Beauman, the latter two having served as writers for the sitcom The Wayans Bros.
While this script was being developed, Miramax also had their own Scream spoof in the works, as written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, who later went on to write and direct a string of critically panned spoofs such as Date Movie, Disaster Movie, and Vampires Suck.
Though according to Marlon Wayans neither Friedberg nor Seltzer had any input on the Scary Movie script, the Writers Guild of America nevertheless elected to give them a credit due to the two projects being rolled into one.
And so, Friedberg and Seltzer have been able to market all of their subsequent movies as "from two of the six writers of Scary Movie." Genius.