Scream directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin wanted The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson to have a cameo in the film.
11 years after the release of Scream 4, the self-aware slasher franchise is back on the big screen, and has brought back beloved characters Sidney Prescott, Gale Weathers, and Dewey Riley along with it. Actors Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette reprise their respective roles, and the film is as incisive as ever when it comes to analysing the current trends in horror and the film industry at large. Don’t worry, we won’t be letting any serious plot spoilers slip, but we can reveal a bit of interesting trivia. In an interview with Variety, directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin said that they approached Knives Out director Rian Johnson to ask him to appear in Scream.
Like its predecessors poke fun at horror ‘rules’, this newest instalment pokes fun at toxic fans, and does so through the Stab movies. These are the horror films within the Scream films, that are based on the films’ events. One of the characters lets slip that Stab 8, the maligned latest instalment, was directed by the guy who made Knives Out – Rian Johnson.
This is a fitting joke considering Johnson’s directorial past – he’s no stranger to toxic fans and backlash against his films. I am of course referring to The Last Jedi, the second film of the new Star Wars trilogy, where the reaction to the movie in some dark corners of the internet was so excessive that Rose Tico actor Kelly Marie Tran was forced to leave social media.
Gillett and Bettinelli-Olpin say that they even went so far as to ask Johnson to cameo in the film as himself. “We reached out and wanted to do a fake, ‘ET’/’Extra’ press junket thing with him,” Gillett told Variety. “He was off making Knives Out 2. So he had bigger fish to fry than our Scream sequel.”
Directors Gillett and Bettinelli-Olpin are used to making horror films, and working together. They make up two thirds of the filmmaking trio named Radio Silence, alongside Justin Martinez. Together, they directed Devil’s Due and Ready Or Not. It’s not currently known what their next project will be.
Scream is out now in UK cinemas.
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