Hayden Panettiere and Rory Culkin Officially Cast in SCREAM 4
Just last week Dimension Films offered Hayden Panettiere (Heroes) and Rory Culkin (Mean Creek) roles in Scream 4, yesterday Emma Robert was cast in the film as Jill, Sidney's cousin and one of the film's primary heroines facing up against the Ghost Face killer.
Today it's been confirmed by Variety that Panettiere and Culkin have accepted the offers, and have been officially cast in the next film in the Scream franchise. Panettiere will play Jill’s best friend who is a nerdy film geek, and Culkin will play a potential love interest for Jill.
Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette have all previously committed to reprise their respective roles in the fourth film. The story for Scream 4 takes place in Woodsboro ten years after the events in Scream 3. Director Wes Craven previously explained,
We have fun with the idea of endless sequels, or “sequelitis” as Kevin calls it in the script. Sid goes through these three horrendous things, and Stab was based on those horrible things. And then they’ve been taken by a studio and run into the ground in a series of sequels. She has been off by herself and living her own life, and she’s even written a book that has gotten a lot of critical acclaim. She’s kind of put her life back together in the course of these 10 years. But, certainly, there would be no Scream without Ghostface, so she has to confront him again, but now as a woman who has really come out the darkness of her past.” … “This is a film about the progress of, at this point, three core characters, and how all of these events have changed their lives, and how the events in their lives have been reflected in the movies around them, which they might like or might really not like at all. I think that makes it really different.
I can't help be be excited for this flick. I'm a big fan of the original Scream trilogy and I'm looking forward to seeing what they have in store for the next chapter in the franchise. Screenwriter Kevin Williamson said that Scream 4 will reference manga comics, Asian ghost girl movies, PG-13 horror movies, vampire films, M. Night Shyamalan movies and torture porn. The movie will begin shooting in Michigan in June 2010, for a release date of April 15th 2011.
