Williamson answers all our questions about the 1997 horror sequel.
Warning: This article contains spoilers forScream 2.
Screenwriters don’t get hotter thanKevin Williamsonwas during the late ’90s.
Neve Campbell in ‘Scream 2’.Paramount
No wonder he took a nap while visiting the set ofScream 2(which he alsowrote).
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:Screamwas not an immediate hit when Dimension released the film in 1996.
After that first weekend, did you think, well, there probably won’t be a second one?
‘Scream 2’.Paramount
KEVIN WILLIAMSON:There was always conversation about it during the filming of the first one.
They were already talking, like, a three-picture deal.
And then, of course, it came out to low numbers.
‘Scream’ and ‘Scream 2’ screenwriter Kevin Williamson.Gilbert Flores/Getty
And then, by the second or third week, our box office was building.
When was the last time box office built?
How quickly did you write the script?
‘Scream 2’.Paramount
Because in the end,Scream 2was in theaters less than twelve months later.
Well, when I sold the firstScream, I had a treatment [for the second].
I had the whole Sydney-goes-to-college.
A lot of it changed along the way but it pretty much stayed intact.
Yeah, I wrote really fast.
Here’s how I remember it.
Luckily we had caught the zeitgeist and everyone wanted to know aboutScream 2.
So I knew it was going it leak eventually there was no way we could hold onto it.
So by the time the real one got out there, there was no fuss, no one cared.
Where did the idea forStab, the movie-within-the-movie, come from?
I knew I wanted to do total-meta.
I thought Wes did that so beautifully.
I loved he way he filmedStab 1and I thought it worked really great.
I thought it was a great conflict for this character.
Did you think about pursuing that inScream 2?
No, I thought it should just always be his crush.
He was always sort of the guy who had the crush and they were meant to be friends always.
He flirts with her and she just puts up with it.
They’re bonded after the first movie.
I think they’re family at that point.
Randy adds so much to the first two films' meta nature.
Was it a hard decision to kill him off?
Everything’s off the table.
I would have loved for him to be a legacy character.
That’s a good question.
You’ve caught me off-guard.
If you’d asked me what the best-writtenscreenplay was, I would sayGet Out.
I think we’ll be talking about that movie 25 years from now.
I think we’ll be talking about that movie 50 years from now.
What are you working on at the moment?
I have a TV show on Peacock calledDead Day, which is a fun genre piece.
It’s about: One day a year, the dead can rise.
And I’m getting ready to direct a movie in the coming year.
It’s calledThe Audition.
It’s about a young actress who auditions for a part and it all goes wrong.
So it’s a fun thriller.
It’s sort of, how would you describe it…
Give me the elevator pitch.
I don’t know what the elevator pitch is!
Anyway, it’s a spec script I wrote, and I set it up.
and we’re casting now.
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