Scream Reboot Team Taking On Universal Monsters Next
Universal Pictures has hired Radio Silence, the Scream reboot team, for a new movie.
The record-setting Scream reboot last year was dethroned this year when Radio Silence produced Scream 6, and now with a proven track record of success going back to Ready or Not, Universal Pictures is letting the team play with their classic monsters. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet will be directing an upcoming movie rumored to be titled Dracula’s Daughter. The new face of the Scream franchise, Melissa Barrera, is already on board for the new project, lending credence to the Dracula rumor.
Given the success of the last two movies, it’s hard to remember that a Scream reboot was necessary to rejuvenate the franchise. Scream 4, released in 2011, made $38 million domestically, which was good for a horror film, but to put it in perspective, Scream 6 made over $100 million and is still in theaters today. The Wes Craven-directed movies aren’t bad; in fact, all of them still hold up today, but since taking over the franchise, Radio Silence has been two-for-two.
Part of that is from timing, with Jenna Ortega reprising her role from the Scream reboot after breaking out in Netflix’s Wednesday. The other half is, like with James Wan before them, the Radio Silence team having an innate understanding of what makes horror movies tick. The meta-commentary deconstruction of Scream 6 only works if the crew behind the camera knows the proper way to reassemble the building blocks.
Universal Pictures hopes Radio Silence can do the same for their stable of monsters. The Scream reboot proved they could take a well-worn concept, turn it slightly, and find success, which Universal Pictures desperately needs right now, given the complete failure of the Dark Universe concept. Recent monster movies have found success, but even at their best, it’s “cult classic” level and not “blockbuster” levels.
The Scream reboot is easiest compared to the recent Universal monster films, The Invisible Man starring Elizabeth Moss, and Renfield, starring Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult. Each film updated a classic story, focusing on domestic abuse with the former and realizing your boss doesn’t have your best intentions at heart for the latter. Straight re-tellings of previous monster movies, attempted with Dracula: Untold and Tom Cruise’s The Mummy, produced massive box office flops, while this new approach seems to be working out so far.
Dracula’s Daughter, the rumored project from the Scream reboot team, will allegedly focus on a group of friends that are kidnapped, leading to the revelation that one of the friends is the daughter of the Lord of the Vampires. Chances are it’ll be Melissa Barrera, just a hunch, but if Samara Weaving is involved in some capacity, that will also not be a surprise. The Ready or Not star helped put Radio Silence on the map, and her Scream 6 appearance helped set the tone for the film.
It will be a while before the Scream reboot team’s next film is unveiled, but given the quick turnaround between the last two films in the franchise, it might be 2024 when we get to see Dracula’s Daughter (or whatever it ends up being called.)
