It looks like it’s honesty week when talking about Scream 7. Things kicked off with Jenna Ortega revealing that it wasn’t scheduling conflicts or a pay dispute that led to her dropping out of the seventh installment, with the real reason being the issues surrounding Melissa Barrera’s firing and not being able to make the film with the team she had become accustomed to. Now director Christopher Landon
, who was set to helm the seventh entry, is revealing a bit about what happened when he had to exit the project and the end result says a lot about the negative side of the fandom.
During a chat with the Evolution of Horror Podcast, Landon was candid about his exit, and it’s easy to see that how the experience turned out still affects him because he really wanted to do the film. However, despite how things turned out, he believes Kevin Williamson was the right person to direct Scream 7 because only he could get some of the legacy cast to come back, but he also admits that he saw the dark side of the fandom after his family began getting death threats.
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Jenna Ortega Finally Reveals the Real Reason She Left the ‘Scream’ Franchise
While it was reported that it was scheduling or a pay dispute that resulted in Jenna Ortega’s departure, the real reason was much more personal.
It was an incredibly painful and difficult situation to be in for everybody and I mean everybody. […] I look back on it now, and I was like, of course, Kevin had to direct it.[…] Kevin was the only one who could get all those cast members back. None of those people were going to make the movie unless Kevin was directing it[…] The only hard part for me was having to deal with the toxic side of fandom, and it’s dark, and when people like threaten your kids, it’s super f***ed up over a movie.”
Signing Onto ‘Scream 7’ Became a Toxic Experience For the Director
Landon was announced to replace the Radio Silence duo of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet on Scream 7 after the pair directed 2022’s Scream and Scream VI. It seemed like a match made in heaven, given that Landon’s style seems right in line with the tone of the Scream franchise but as quickly as it was announced, it fell apart just as fast. After Barrera was fired for sharing perceived antisemitic posts by Spyglass Media Group and Ortega departed soon after, there was a toxicity that spread in the fandom, and it seemed to grow stronger with each passing day.
Landon announced that he was departing the film in December 2023, and it was a decision that was his own, despite the fact that the studio wanted him to stay and put his own stamp on the project and give it a new direction. Even though he admits he was “grieving the loss of one of my dream jobs,” he knew that he had to let it go because the abuse he endured from the toxic part of the fandom wasn’t worth his mental health or his family’s safety.
“They wanted me to continue on. They basically said, ‘You can restart it. You can figure it out.’ But the amount of abuse that I had to deal with, I decided I didn’t want to give any part of myself to that. For me, it was not worth it. I would rather put my efforts into something else, where I could feel appreciated and respected. The hate and abuse really spoiled it for me, and I lost my love for the idea going forward.”
Those efforts were put into his latest film Drop, which currently sits at an impressive 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes following a glowing premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. The first date-gone-wrong thriller is set to open this weekend, and it looks like it’s poised to be a box office hit. Sometimes the best revenge is success, and it’s great to see that Landon got to put his talents and love into something worthwhile for himself rather than having to deal with a fandom that has proven to be toxic on many occasions.
Source: The Evolution of Horror Podcast, Vanity Fair
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