James Vanderbilt Interview: Scream | Screen Rant
More than 25 years after the original Scream terrorized theaters, the iconic horror franchise is back with the aptly-titled sequel, Scream. Among those responsible for the property's highly-anticipated return is screenwriter James Vanderbilt, a Hollywood veteran who has worked in some of the industry's biggest series, including Spider-Man and Transformers.
Screen Rant spoke with Vanderbilt about his experience on Scream, his thoughts about Spider-Man: No Way Home, and much more.
Screen Rant: James, thank you so much for joining me. Scream is one of my favorite franchises. So I was so excited to see this movie. I've seen it. I love it so much. How are you feeling so far? At the time we're recording, it's coming out tomorrow. But the response so far has been great.
James Vanderbilt: It's been amazing just to see people start to see it, and start to respond to it, and start to really like it, which is wonderful. I think also, we lived with the secrets of the movie for so long that every time we've talked about it, we've had to be careful. So finally, being able to talk a little bit more broadly about what happens in the movie has been really exciting.
That's the most exciting part about the Scream movies is unmasking the killer, finding out who the killer is, and previous movies have infamously either scrapped endings and rewritten them, because they've been found out, or had fake endings that they've leaked into the universe. Did you play with doing that? Did you do a bunch of alternate endings? Did you write fake endings just in case that script got out?
James Vanderbilt: We did. We actually sort of felt like it was part of the fun of making a Scream movie, is writing fake endings. It's sort of the honor. It's what Kevin did, and we wanted to honor Kevin and Wes. So we actually gave a lot of the actors' different endings than is actually in the movie. We gave certain people in post-production, in the studio different endings. Guy Busick, my co-writer, and I wrote a bunch of different fake endings. Then when it came to production, we were shooting in COVID so, we didn't really have a lot of extra time, not that you ever do on a movie. But the ending we shot is the only ending we shot. But the cast, up until the last couple of weeks of production, some of them didn't know whether they were the killer or not and would play guessing games about it, which I thought was really fun.
Oh that's really interesting. I love that. I have to imagine you've tackled a lot of of popular IP, but where does Scream rank in terms of just, the pressure of writing it because it is a Scream movie without Wes [Craven]. Where did the idea start for you? Or the question that kicked off the Scream script for you?
James Vanderbilt: It really began with [myself], and my partners William Sherak and Paul Neinstein, founded this company Project X about two and a half years ago, and we had had some conversation with Gary Barber, who basically owned Scream and knew he wanted to make another one. He said, "Look, would you guys be interested in doing it? And would you, Jamie, be interested in writing it?" And Scream, for me, has always been this amazing touchstone of a film that I saw when I was in college and completely blew me away. It was at the time when I wanted to be a screenwriter, to see a screenplay like Kevin had written be so confident and so amazing, and be able to do so many different things at the same time, and have its cake and eat it too, in terms of deconstructing a genre, but also being one of the best versions of a genre. The idea of making one was incredibly exciting. But it was also this incredible opportunity that we got to build completely from the ground up. There were no parameters from Spyglass. They just sort of said, "What would you do with it? Here's the title." And the first thing we did, and I said is, "We have to call Kevin Williamson and we have to get him involved." Because I didn't want us to do anything without him being with us every step of the way, and getting his blessing and getting his writer brain on to what would work and what wouldn't work, and we were lucky enough that Kevin came on board. Then Guy Busick, who I'd known for 20 years, who I'd produced a movie that he had co-written called 'Ready or Not.' I mean, one of my favorite experiences was making that movie with Guy and Radio Silence who I then was like, "We want to bring those guys in to direct it" because I didn't want to trust anyone I hadn't worked with before, with material as this. It was so precious to us, and we really got to build it from the ground up. That was one of the most exciting things of my career. I've been lucky enough to be able to work with a lot of different people and in a lot of different genres, but this one is incredibly special.
I don't even know if you want to say at this point, or if you can say, but it feels like Woodsboro is going to be always a place that fans want to return to. Are you thinking about multiple Scream films in this new era, if we want to call it that? Or do you feel like this is a one-and-done type thing?
James Vanderbilt: The way we approached it, and I've had this experience before in my career where I worked on movies before where people go, "Oh, it would be so exciting to plan out two and three! And we'll plant this," and then the movie comes out, and there is no sequel because it didn't work. So coming into this, we really looked at it as, "If we got to make one Scream film, what would we put if we only got one shot at it?" We want it to do everything we could in here and put it in here and make sure that, like Wes' films, it's a full meal from beginning to end. If the opportunity came along to make more, I think all of us would jump at the chance. This has just been an incredibly exciting experience and a wonderful experience. It really has been getting to make a movie with your friends, which is not almost ever the case. But we really did want this movie to stand on its own. We didn't want to make the two-hour trailer for Scream 6. We wanted to sort of take you on the journey, take you on the ride, re-introduce you to the people you love, have you meet some new characters along the way, and really enjoy going back to Woodsboro.
How much time do you spend thinking about the Stab movies? Because there is some stuff in the trailer that I don't think we quite saw that I think is from maybe Stab?
James Vanderbilt: There is some, and I don't think it's a spoiler, there is some footage from a new Stab movie in this particular movie, that is in the trailer. I always sort of love the idea of, starting in Scream 2, that there is this franchise going along in-universe that can also sort of make fun of and poke fun at what is going on in horror. It's such a wonderfully Kevin Williamson meta thing where he wrote a throwaway line about "Tori Spelling would star would star in the remake" in the first movie and then getting Tori Spelling to play that character in the second movie. It felt very proper to check in on the Stab franchise and where they are today.
Definitely. And I can tell that you are a massive Scream fan because, and I'll say this to people watching, is to pay really close attention to things like names and last names and things that are people are saying. What can you tease about all of that?
James Vanderbilt: Going back to the fact that Billy Loomis, Loomis from Halloween. There's always been sort of a naming scheme, and so, one of our newer characters is named Sam Carpenter. Carpenter for John Carpenter. There's a character named Wes in the film after the wonderful late Wes Craven. There's always, I think, a playfulness to creating those characters and naming them that way.
I also want to ask you about another thing that is very popular right now. You also wrote a little movie called The Amazing Spider-Man. Have you seen No Way Home?
James Vanderbilt: [nods] Yes.
You've seen it. I mean, how much did you know in advance? When did you find out that Andrew and Tobey were going to be involved?
James Vanderbilt: No, nobody told me. It was one of those things where the rumors were kind of going around and I didn't reach out, I didn't reach out to Amy [Pascal]. But I always sort of went, "Oh man, if they pull that off, it would be incredible." And I had also written a version of Spider-Man 4 with Tobey [Maguire] and Sam [Raimi] before they moved on. So weirdly, I'd written Spider-Man for Tobey and for Andrew [Garfield], and I love what Tom [Holland] has done with it and what they've done within the MCU. So it was just so fun to see that. I always said the best thing we ever did was cast Andrew because I just think he's such a phenomenal actor, and so to see him getting the love right now and the accolades is just really special.
Yeah, it's been incredible. There's also this big kind of fandom push slash, maybe a studio push to have Andrew back? Unclear at the moment. But what do you think of that possibility? And are you interested in working with him in that capacity again?
James Vanderbilt: Oh, I mean, listen, I just as a fan would love to see him play the role more, just because I think he's so wonderful, and I would never say no to working with an actor like that at the same time. I think what they've built there and -- listen, I know Amy Pascal. I've known her forever and she's done such a great job producing those movies. I would always say yes to working with my friends again. But I also think they've done such a phenomenal job and they have it so well in hand that I'm just excited to be a fan and see what they do next.
Quick question, just circling back to the Spider-Man 4 of it all. How far were you in that process?
James Vanderbilt: Yeah so, Spider-Man 4, we had a full script sort of ready to go, and, as is sort of the case when you're a working feature writer, they brought in some other great writers to punch it up. They changed some things, and I think about a year later, they got to a point where -- and I don't know why -- but they got to a point where they decided that wasn't the road they were going to go down. They were going to sort of reboot it. And at the same time, I'd been talking to Amy about what to do next and she said, "I think there's a possibility of us taking Peter Parker back to high school. Would that be something you're interested in?" And we came up with a story. But it was wonderful to work with Sam Raimi, who's one of my heroes, and Tobey Maguire, who was so great in the role. It was very odd because I came in with the idea of ending one franchise and then ended up starting another one, which was an interesting journey for me.
I want to get a couple other updates from you because another movie that I love that I think is such a gem was Murder Mystery. I loved it. So you're doing Murder Mystery 2, right? That's filming I think.
James Vanderbilt: The reason I'm in a hotel room is we're on day four and I've just come back from there. But yeah, Murder Mystery 2 is filming.
How is it?
James Vanderbilt: I mean, I'm biased but really good! Adam [Sandler] and Jen [Aniston] are incredible and they just have such great chemistry. It's so much fun to be able to make a movie like that. A lot of the things I've done have been more serious, or action-y, or what have you. So just a pure fun comedy, that was something I was really excited to do. I've been married for 16 years now and when I wrote the first one, and this one, it was really sort of a love letter to my wife. Romantic stories are always about a couple meeting for the first time or about a couple about to break up at the end. You always see the beginning and the end of a relationship, you never see the middle with a couple that really loves each other and that was sort of, behind all of the jokes and the wackiness and stuff, the idea for Murder Mystery that I had. And so I love that we got to make that movie and the people responded to it, and we get to do it again.
I'm so glad there's another one. I thought it was so fun.
Okay now, give me the Transformers update. I was trying to figure this out because there are dual Transformers scripts. Are you doing Rise of the Beasts?
James Vanderbilt: No. So I know Lorenzo di Bonaventura, the producer of those movies, who's wonderful and a friend and we were working on something else when he came to me and he said, "If you were going to do a Transformers movie, what would you do?" And I kind of pitched him this take. And he said, "Oh, that sounds really cool." So they hired me to write it, and he said, "Look, just you know, we're also hiring a guy named Joby Harold, who's a wonderful writer, to write a completely different take." And I said, "Great!" I'm pro writers, and ultimately they decided that Joby's was the next movie they wanted to make and I've read it and he did a phenomenal job. They're shooting and I've spoken to the director Steven [Caple Jr.] a little bit and Lorenzo, just because I'm friends with them and a fan, and I think it's super cool. But yeah, Rise of the Beasts is going to be really fun, I think. But it is not the Transformers that I wrote.
You've tackled some great IP between Spider-Man, Scream, Transformers. Is there anything you would love to tackle that you feel like you have an idea in mind for a next chapter or refresher or revival? Anything you would love to tackle?
James Vanderbilt: I think there's always stuff out there there, there are one or two. I also don't always want to jinx it and put it out in the world. The other thing that is really important to me as a writer and a producer is supporting original stories and voices. The thing about IP, it's great, but you have to continue to make new IP. You can't just kind of do the old thing. That's why we made 'Ready or Not,' which I'm super incredibly proud of. That's why we're making the next Michael Bay movie, this thing called Ambulance, which Chris Fedak wrote, which is based on a Danish heist film. That's why we're making this movie Bed Rest, which is written and directed by Lori Evans Taylor, who's a first-time writer-director. So I'm actually incredibly passionate about all of the stuff I grew up with, and I love, and that we all love, but also telling new stories and breaking new ground because I think that's how we'll get the Screams of tomorrow is by letting really cool filmmakers and really great writers take shots with new material.
Not to completely go against everything you just said, but I love Ready or Not so much. I watched it thinking there's no sequel for that, that's a one-and-done movie, but would a prequel or something like that be something that you would want to explore?
James Vanderbilt: I love that universe and I think Guy and Ryan, who wrote it -- Ryan and I went to college together, I met Guy through him. We've been friends for 20 years. -- We all had such a blast making that movie and it was a tough movie to make and get made. Fox Searchlight really stood behind it, which was wonderful. But it is such a very specific tone and a lot of times with stuff that's horror-comedy, you really have to convince people that you can ride that line and that it's going to work. And so I feel like the movie was successful in doing that, and people really love it, it would be great to revisit that universe again. That would be super fun for me. Plus, I actually play the devil in it. So for me personally, I would be very excited to do it again.
I love the word of mouth of that movie. I would bring that copy to work and then be like, "You have to borrow this and then let me know what you think." I feel like it's spread around like the Ring videotape.
James Vanderbilt: Oh, I love that. Thank you so much for doing that. That's so great.
Is there anything else that you would like to touch on that I did not mention?
James Vanderbilt: The things that I'm really excited about coming up are, I'm a writer, but I began producing as a way to literally just start to not get fired from feature films, because usually when you're a feature film writer there's a lot of turnover, and I figured if I was a producer, they'd be less likely to fire me because they knew I was still gonna be there on Monday. And then I ended up really enjoying it and we started this company Project X and so we have Scream coming out now, we have Michael Bay's next movie Ambulance coming out in April, which is amazing. Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya [Abdul-Mateen II], we have Bed Rest with Melissa Barrera from Scream coming out in July, and we're starting a TV series for Netflix called The Night Agent created by the great Shawn Ryan, who created The Shield, so we're just super excited about having a wide variety of fun stuff coming out. So so just excited for what's next -- and Murder Mystery 2!
Scream is now playing in U.S. theaters.