For better or for worse, Scream fans have a lot to start talking about now that MTV has announced its plans to pick up the Scream pilot for a full season set to air sometime in fall 2015. The first season will be 10 episodes long and will feature a brand new cast totally unrelated to the Woodboro storyline from the movies.
The Scream pilot(which has not been blessed by creator Wes Craven or writer Kevin Williamson) will follow audrey Jensen and Emma Duvall after a Youtube video goes viral and places them at the heart of a murder mystery in the quiet town of Lakewood.
There have been a few casting announcements including Arrow’s Bex Taylor-Klaus as the lead lady, Willa Fitzgerald as “pretty girl” Emma, and John Karna, Carlson Young, and Amadeus Serafini as the rest of the supporting cast. The young and upcoming ensemble is interesting, but is clearly trying for a certain teen pop CW vibe. Despite Scream‘s older audience(the original film is now a staggering eighteen years old), MTV is hoping to retrofit the brand to capture the interest of teens.
We’ve started to see more and more film to TV adaptions with the massive successes of Fargo, The Bates Motel, and Hannibal. Scream isn’t exactly a show that comes to mind when you say television adaption, but after Fargo delivered an incredible season 1 debut, it seems possible showrunner Jeff Davis might have a similar treatment in mind. This idea would certainly fall in line with the rumor that there wouldn’t be an appearance from the iconic Ghostface in the small screen adaption.
I’m a huge fan of the Scream franchise and I even tolerate the often despised ‘stepchild’ that was Scream 3. Scream 4 brought the franchise back in a big way with its parody of reboots and torture porn, but franchise has been in a pretty uncertain place ever since. The idea of a Scream TV show is intriguing and in the right hands I’m convinced it could be every bit as good an idea as Fargo’s turn on the small screen. Taking the satirical spirit and themes of the films and revamping them in a totally new setting could make for some really entertaining TV, but given MTV’s lack of experience in the original scripted content department; I wouldn’t hold your breath.
We’re still a little ways off from the fall 2015 pilot debut, but in the mean time; there’s a great show made in the same spirit as Scream called The Following. Do yourself a favor and check it!