Wes Craven talks SCREAM 4 casting and why 3D was not used

Wes Craven was interviewed by MovieWeb, and he shared his thoughts on the continuation of the horror franchise with Scream 4. Here is what Craven said when asked about how the film incorporated social networking into the storyline and how they combat against script leaks:

"This is part and parcel of the idea that screenwriter Kevin Williamson came up with. This was to be very much about all of that. We felt that was one of the most relevant and new things of this particular last decade. The explosion of that. A means of expression. A means of what is going on in the world. A means of communicating between friends. And the use of it to exploit whatever is going on, like the movie itself. This was not something that became a part of Scream 1, 2, or 3. That made this new story fascinating to me."

He revealed his thoughts on Charlyne Yi going on the Tonight Show and 'supposedly' giving away the ending, as well as how auditions were handled:

"Those people are not up to speed at all. That particular instance was an actress not knowing, at all, what she was talking about. What we did was, we were too scared to put actual script pages from Scream 4 out there for the audition process. Because we knew we would be seeing hundreds of actors. Any one of them that doesn't get a role would be likely to put those pages they had stuck into their pocket out on the Internet. So we did all of our casting using pages from Scream 1. Believe it or not. The actresses were using Billy Loomis' lines from his scene in the bedroom. It was quite bizarre. Then we were saying, "I think they can do the scene that is actually in our movie!" Everything was circumspect. Every script was watermarked, so that the name of the person it belonged to was on every single page. We never gave scripts out to agencies, because we quickly found out that agencies are a very dangerous place for scripts to be hanging around. Anyone who had sworn on their mother's grave that they would not show it to anyone would immediately show it to their sort-of-good friend, who would turn around and immediately make a copy of it. There is a lot of espionage type behavior on our part. On the other hand, we had three friends and family screenings when we were editing. And we also did three official test screenings. Which, we took everyone's phone, and we made them sign non-disclosure agreements. And one of the producers would go before the audience, and they would say, "We depend on you to keep this whole thing a secret. It hurts us, and it hurts the audience who is going to see the film, if you exploit it. So please don't." By and large, it seems that people honored that. Occasionally, we would have an actor or actress who came in for a cameo, who'd go home and tweet about it. They would give away that they might be a victim, or something like that. But by and large, so far, the secrets of the film have remained undisclosed. That is a great thing. It gives me hope. I have to say, I was getting despondent about the audience out there, just constantly trying to sneak a peek, looking over your shoulder constantly when you are trying to work. A lot of these things are uncomfortable when it comes to the work. It takes more time, and in some ways, it takes away the freedom of actually working."

Here is what Craven said when asked about using 3D for future films in the Scream franchise:

"No. Bob Weinstein, from the get-go, said that Scream would not be in 3D. My Soul to Take was shot in 2D, and was never intended to be in 3D. Right after we finished shooting it, the studio was bought. Suddenly, we were dealing with a new group of people. Very late in the process, around the time we were beginning work on Scream 4, the new studio decided that they wanted My Soul to Take in 3D. Or else we would not be distributed very much at all. It was a hard choice, but we went with it. I shot the film to be in 2D. If I go back and watch My Soul to Take, it will be in 2D and not 3D. Bob Weinstein, who is the godfather of the Scream series, said that this will never be in 3D. It doesn't need it. It's a gimmick. We will just make it in 2D Anamorphic, as we always have.

He also talked about the casting process and how he was able to pull together such a great cast:

"A lot of the actors we choose aren't known for the horror genre. When you see it, you'll find that a lot of the actors we chose this time are known for TV and small movies. But not for horror movies at all. Emma Roberts? She is known for Nancy Drew. 

"There is a little bell that goes off in my head when I see someone that is really extraordinary. I cast this with my wife. We looked at hundreds of people. We had casting agents on both coasts. We looked at people we knew, because we knew an enormous amount of people. It was a many-tiered process. There are associates of the casting agents who are going to see everybody in every conceivable place, to little off Broadway, to little off-La Cienega theaters, to obscure television shows. We looked at everybody. It's an exhaustive process. More than anything else, its that dogged determination to not compromise. To find someone that is really extraordinary, and someone who thinks it's a good thing to be in this kind of film. By and large, we found that there was an enormous interest from actors to be in Scream 4. I think its because Scream has established itself as a premier showcase. It's not some stupid exploitation movie. It is an interesting movie that gets set-up and well reviewed, and there are great roles in it. Which turned out to be the case for this iteration."

Be sure to check out the full interview at MovieWeb. Scream 4 hits theaters April 15th, 2011 and stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Hayden Panettiere, Rory Culkin, Emma Roberts, Ashley Greene, Nico Tortorella. Are you looking forward to seeing this film?