The company has tapped Christopher Landon — a scary movie stalwart whose credits include the Happy Death Day series as well as body-switching horror-comedy Freaky — to direct the seventh installment of the long-running franchise
Landon takes over from Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the filmmaking team known as Radio Silence, who helmed the 2022 installment that rebooted and refurbished the movie series. The duo followed that movie, simply titled Scream, with Scream VI, which was released in March.
Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett stepped back, in part, to focus on an original horror movie for Universal, which currently remains impacted by the actors strike. The duo, as well as third group member Chad Villella, will now act as executive producers.
The two recent movies, distributed by Paramount, scared up $137.7 million and $168.9 million worldwide, respectively, and introduced a fresher-faced cast to the bloody proceedings, among them Jenna Ortega, Melissa Barrera and Mason Gooding.
Sources say the actors do not have deals for a new installment but are expected to return once the dual writer and actor strikes are settled. Ortega’s deal will be one to watch, as the actress signed on to the franchise before she was catapulted to the A-list thanks to Netflix’s Wednesday.
Also unclear is who will be writing Scream 7. James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick wrote the scripts for the two recent movies. However, Landon is also an established screenwriter, having written or co-written all his directorial efforts. In any event, the script aspect won’t come into focus until the writers strike ends.
