SCREAM VII Director Christopher Landon Explains How He Landed the Film and Says It “Was Always Meant to Be” — GeekTyrant

With the Radio Silence directing team putting their focus on making a monster movie for Universal Pictures and a remake of Escape From New York, they had to pass off Scream VII to another filmmaker to take over the horror franchise. That director ended up being Christopher Landon, who helmed films such as Happy Death Day and Freaky. He’s made some great horror movies and it seems like the Scream franchise would be a great fit for his filmmaking and storytelling style.

During a recent interview on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show, Landon was asked about Scream VII and how that ended up landing in his lap, and he explained that it was always meant to be. He said:

“It came out of the blue for me. My understanding is that there were conversations happening for some time. But I think it was just an opportunity that really arose because the other directors who did the last two films, Tyler and Matt, they wanted to do something else. They were ready to kind of do something different. That’s when they obviously had to find someone new, and I’ve known Kevin Williamson, who wrote the original film, for a long, long time and he’s a friend. I think he threw my name into the hat and everybody kind of said, ‘Yeah, that makes sense. That seems to make sense.’ And I was just thrilled that I got that call because it felt very, it felt like kismet, it felt like a thing that like was always meant to be.”

There’s no information on who will be writing Scream VII, but the last two films were written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick. Landon is also a screenwriter, so I imagine that he’ll at least be a co-writer on the script.

As for the cast, I imagine most, if not all, of the surviving main characters will return, so that includes Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Mason Gooding, and Jasmin Savoy Brown. It would also be nice to see Hayden Panettiere.

I’m curious to see where they take the story next as the creative team attempts to keep the franchise fresh.