Courteney Cox Wants to Direct a SCREAM Movie After 30 Years of Fighting Ghostface
Courteney Cox has spent 30 years running from Ghostface, chasing news stories, and somehow keeping Gale Weathers alive through one massacre after another. At this point, she figures she might as well direct one of the movies.
Cox is returning to directing with her sophomore feature Evil Genius, and while discussing the true-crime film at the Deadline Studio during TIFF, the actress was asked about possibly taking charge of a future Scream movie.
She’s definitely into the idea. She said: “I think I should, honestly. Nobody knows more about that movie than I do. I mean, and the creator, and Wes Craven, and the writers, and everybody who’s been in it. But I think it’d be great and fun and a good publicity thing. Get on it.”
Cox has played reporter Gale Weathers since Wes Craven’s original Scream hit theaters in 1996, making her one of the franchise’s most enduring stars. After three decades of watching these movies get made, she certainly knows what makes this horror franchise tik.
Cox most recently returned as Gale in Scream 7, which also brought Neve Campbell back as Sidney Prescott. The film was directed by Kevin Williamson, who wrote the original Scream and helped create the foundation of the franchise.
While Scream 7 took a beating from critics and currently sits at 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences still showed up. The movie earned nearly $208 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing sequel in the franchise.
Ghostface isn’t going anywhere, either. Following that box-office performance, Spyglass hired sisters Lilla Zuckerman and Nora Zuckerman to write Scream 8.
Whether Cox could eventually end up directing that movie or another installment remains to be seen, but putting someone with her history with the franchise in charge could be pretty damn cool.
She knows these characters, she worked extensively with Craven, and she has experienced firsthand how Scream has changed across multiple generations of filmmakers.
For now, Cox is focused on Evil Genius, a true-crime film that explores the infamous “pizza bomber” case and digs into the people caught up in a story involving deception, desperation, and questions about who was ultimately a victim or a villain.
The film stars Patricia Arquette, David Harbour, Tom McCarthy, and more.
Cox directing a Scream movie feels like a natural progression after 30 years as Gale Weathers. She clearly wants the job, so maybe it’s time for Spyglass to hand her Ghostface’s knife and see what she can do with it.