Hit comedy franchise gets unexpected reboot

The comedy franchise Scary Movie, which mocked and parodied popular films during the 2000s, is set to receive an unexpected reboot, courtesy of its original creators, the Wayans Brothers.

There were a total of five Scary Movie films released between 2000 and 2013. They largely followed the plots of 1990s slashers like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer but were mostly a vehicle to make fun of other films like The Matrix, The Blair Witch Project and The Sixth Sense.

The first film was a huge success, earning more than $270m (£207m) at the worldwide box office but despite four more films, it never got close to replicating those numbers and has been credited with killing off the concept of the spoof film.

Earlier this year, it was announced that Paramount and Miramax were planning to reboot the franchise but no further details were disclosed at the time. Now a major update has come in the form of the Wayans themselves; Marlon, Keenan and Shawn.

Taking to Instagram, Marlon Wayans wrote: “Last week I said I had a HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT to make well here it is WE’RE BACK!!! After nearly 20 years, the Wayans brothers are finally going to give the fans what they’ve been asking for… a return to the SCARY MOVIE franchise! We’re looking forward to having fun on the big screen again.”

Wayans also shared a picture of himself with their take on Ghostface, the killer from the Scream movies.

In a statement given to Variety, he said: “We couldn’t be more excited to be a part of the new Scary Movie and work with each other again. This is a franchise we created more than 20 years ago. We remember people laughing in the aisles and hope to see that happen again. We look forward to working with Jonathan Glickman and his team at the new Miramax to bring these laughs to theatres, where they belong. It’s a double reunion.”

Miramax CEO Jonathan Glickman added: “We are thrilled to reunite Scary Movie with the Wayans Brothers, the brilliant creators behind the beloved franchise. The timing is perfect to bring back the series to the big screen and we’re lucky to have Keenen, Marlon and Shawn’s unique comedic vision bringing it to audiences around the world.”

Although the Wayans were involved in the creation and development of the first two Scary Movie films, Marlon Wayans revealed in July 2020 that he was “abruptly fired” from Scary Movie 3 while on holiday, after Harvey Weinstein and his brother Bob, who produced the franchise, declined the terms of a new deal.

“[The Weinstein’s are] not the best or the kindest people to be in business with,” Wayans told Variety in a 20th anniversary oral history of the first film. “They’re very much an evil regime, I guess. They do what they want to do how they do it – and it can be rude and quite disrespectful. We couldn’t come to terms on the deal. It’s like, ‘If you don’t want to pay for the jokes, have somebody else do it.’”

Wayans was on holiday when he found out he was no longer involved with the third film.

“We read on Christmas Eve that they were going with someone else for [Scary Movie 3],” he claimed. “We probably could have sued or whatever, but part of us was like, ‘All you can do is allow us to create something new.’ I could write a book on that whole thing, honestly. They definitely still owe us money, lots of money. What they did was really bad business.”