Early in 2020, Spyglass Media, the current owners of the (meta-ware) serial-killer horror franchise “Scream” announced that they have begun development of a fifth movie to the series that will serve as a continuity reboot. They even got no less than two directors to jointly work on the project. Of course, that year was when COVID-19 became a pandemic, and it would be understandable if news on this movie petered out. But apparently there has been a lot of work done for “Scream 5,” due to premiere next year. To dissuade snoops looking for stuff to leak, the directors are engaging in some epic trolling.

According to Comic Book Resources, “Scream 5” co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett is spoiler-proofing their movie project against the most determined leakers by giving them what they need to know…or multiple versions of it. Apparently while hard at work with the production, the duo who directed 2019’s surprise comedy-horror hit “Ready or Not” are putting up fake shooting scripts as well as different and contradictory story treatments of “Scream 5” online. Produce William Sherak confirms these actions, adding that even the film cast are not given the entire picture themselves, spoiler-proofing against them too.

“The fun of a ‘Scream’ movie is that everyone is guilty until proven innocent,” says Sherak. And what Gillett and Betinelli-Olpin are doing are actually mirrors of the original 1996 film’s director, the legendary Wes Craven, who also provided multiple scripts to the cast and showed them footage to throw them off on which of them is actually the mysterious serial killer Ghostface. Craven died in 2015, and “Scream 5” is the first in the franchise to be done without his involvement. Co-creator Kevin Williamson does return as executive producer, along with many of the original cast: Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courtney Cox, all of them reprising their characters.

New additions to “Scream 5” include Jack Quaid, Mason Gooding, Jenna Ortega, Mikey Madison, Dylan Minnette and Melissa Barrera. The film is due to release in 2022, or 26 years after the debut of “Scream.”

Image courtesy of Bloody Disgusting