Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are reuniting with the Scream VI production team to direct an untitled horror picture for Universal.
The recently-released Scream VI was largely deemed a success by most metrics, garnering decent reviews and racking up a higher global box office than last year’s predecessor. Keeping a franchise’s financials pointed in an upwards trajectory is the name of the game for many a studio executive these days, so it’s no surprise that the directing duo behind those films have found themselves in demand.
Ready Or Not directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have an ongoing deal with Paramount, so when Scream VII does happen we’d imagine they’ll be in line to helm it. However, nothing as yet suggests that the team behind the film are looking to emulate the zippy 14 month turnaround between films that we saw with Scream V and VI.
Instead, it looks like both Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett are heading to Universal for their next project. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the project will centre ‘on a group of kidnappers who abduct a band of young people, one of whom ends up being the titular character. Woe then befalls the kidnappers.’
If you’re wondering why Paramount didn’t activate its first-look clause to keep the duo (collectively known as Radio Silence) at the studio where they created the Scream films, it seems that the lure of Universal’s stable of monsters may have been too strong. The report suggests that the project in question was once titled Dracula’s Daughter, a title of a 1936 Universal sequel to Dracula.
It appears, then, that Universal is continuing its strategy of finding acclaimed filmmakers with unique takes on its storied stable of monster characters. Chloe Zhao may or may not be making a Dracula sci-fi western, Derek Cianfrance is supposed to be reuniting with Ryan Gosling to take on a modern version of The Wolfman, whilst this Friday sees the launch of Renfield, the action comedy featuring Nicholas Hoult as Count Dracula’s beleaguered henchman.
This seems like a smart move all-round. Universal continues to show the rest of Hollywood that a valuable brand doesn’t have to be synergised to death, Paramount can rest the Scream series for a couple of years and avoid over-exposing it, whilst Radio Silence get to make what seems to be a vampire movie, which should be a win for audiences everywhere.
We’ll bring you more on this one as we hear it.
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