Christopher Landon won’t be directing Scream 7 – but he is adding Big Bad as a project to his slate, and it might just be next.
It should, by now, be a movie hurtling towards production. However, the collapse of Scream 7 before Christmas was topped off by the news that its director, Christopher Landon, had followed two of its cast out the door.
Melissa Barrera was fired from the film following her posts on social media that were critical of the Israeli government. Not far behind her was Jenna Ortega, with the star of one of Netflix’s biggest shows – Wednesday – having to honour her commitments to that production. She was thus out of Scream 7 too.
The immediate knock-on from this was that whatever script and story had been planned for the new film was pretty much out of the window, given that two stars needed replacing. And thus, not long after, director Christopher Landon – he of Freaky and Happy Death Day – opted to cut his losses. He confirmed he was out a few weeks later on his social media accounts.
In the ensuing weeks, there’s been no further news on Scream 7, but we do now know that Christopher Landon appears to have landed on his feet.
Lionsgate is hiring him to direct a film by the name of Big Bad, which is based on a short story by Chandler Baker. Baker will be penning the screenplay for the film, Deadline reports, and Landon is also taking on a producer role.
Big Bad comes as part of anthology novel Creature Feature, and it’s a werewolf story. The official synopsis for said novel reads as follows…
“For a family trying to make an isolated farmhouse into a home, fear and rage are getting harder to control in a primal short story by the New York Times bestselling author of Whisper Network and Cutting Teeth.
“The Strauss family is on knife’s edge. Sam is a resentful stay-at-home dad. Rachel feels the restlessness in her blood returning. Their children are getting out of hand. And a recent mudslide has forced the wolves out of the woods to look for food. As dusk falls and tensions rise, the family must come together to survive the night—from the threats outside and those within.”
What’s not clear yet is just how far along the film adaptation is, but we’d imagine it’s the kind of movie Lionsgate would like to get moving sooner rather than later. We’d put a crafty quid on it being out before Scream 7 sees the inside of a cinema at least…
