Welcome back to Nevermore, where I look at some of the most interesting films that were never made. In previous weeks I've looked at films that never quite made it past the page, getting shut down before production could even begin, but this week it's a little different. As you know, Scream 3 did actually get made, it came out in 2000 and almost put an end to the franchise once and for all. Yes Scream 3 is often regarded as the weakest entry to the franchise, and rightly so, but originally things were going to be very different..
Background:
The Scream franchise had been conceived as a trilogy ever since the success of the first film, with screenwriter Kevin Williamson drafting up his plans for the next two films and the late great Wes Craven also contracted to return as director. By the time it came around to making Scream 3 however, Williamson was considerably busy after the success of I Know What You Did Last Summer, and found himself too heavily committed to other projects to write a full screenplay. Nevertheless, Williamson decided to pen a rough 30-ish page draft that would act as a sort of skeleton for the rest of the film. Even though he couldn't be as involved as he was with the previous two films, Williamson ensured that he would have some input and his rough draft was taken aboard.
Plot Details:
Williamson's idea for a third installment would have involved Ghostface returning to Woodsboro once again. In this film, the killers would have been a group of youngsters who were inspired by the Stab films to carry out their own murders and leave their own legacy. The Stab films are of course the fictional films-within-films based off the events of the Scream franchise. As well as that, Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) from the first film was also set to return, orchestrating each murder from within his prison cell. I for one love Matthew Lillard and would have loved to see him come back as Stu.
Here's where it gets interesting though, Williamson has stated that in his version, after Ghostface had killed everyone, it would be revealed that none of them were actually dead! Yep, Sidney (Neve Campbell) would walk into the murder house to find the 'victims' rising up and alive. Sounds a lot like April Fool's Day in some ways. According to Williamson it would have been all part of an attempt by these new Woodsboro kids to leave their own legacy on the town and achieve their own claim to fame, bit dramatic but sure each to their own. With a plot twist like that and Matthew Lillard possibly set to return, the original draft for Scream 3 sounded like it had a lot of potential, but unfortunately it never came to be..
So What Happened?
In 1999, the Columbine tragedy took place, and we all know how that awful event effected the wider media. The school shooting was predominantly blamed on violence in media and in its aftermath, violent forms of media such as films were heavily criticised. In order to avoid being scrutinised, Miramax hired Ehren Kruger to re-write the script as Williamson was too busy with other projects. First of all the location was changed from Woodsboro to Hollywood, as the studio believed smalltown violence would have resonated too much with the Columbine tragedy. At one stage the studio wanted no violence whatsoever and for the film to be more focused on the satirical elements of the franchise, however Craven was opposed to this idea. Kruger completed his script with help from Craven, thus resulting in the Scream 3 that we have now.
Scream 3 is not the worst horror film out there, but it's by far the worst in the franchise and for a while, we were stuck with it as the lackluster concluding chapter. Thankfully however, Craven and Williamson returned with Scream 4 in 2011, a much better film that took certain elements from Craven's original Scream 3 script. Then of course, we got the Scream TV series and things all went to shit again.
Chances of it Ever Getting Made:
Well as we know Scream 3 did get made, albeit a very different version to Williamson's original vision. However, his ideas for the third installment didn't quite die altogether. As mentioned, the idea of a new generation of Woodsboro kids enacting their own murders was later used in Scream 4, but certain other aspects of the script also made it into Williamson's TV show, The Following. The idea of a former killer orchestrating murders from prison with the help of cult-like followers is essentially the premise for The Following. This clearly takes inspiration from Williamson's idea of Stu orchestrating the murders, something that I really would have loved to have seen. Maybe I should just go and watch the following. So in a way Williamson's ideas didn't really die altogether, they were just re-purposed for different projects and used in vastly different ways.
It's interesting to see how much scripts can change in the pre-production stage, and Scream 3 is a prime example. Next time however, I'll be looking at an even more bizarre account of a film that was also eventually made, but a very different version to the original concept.
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