Are you ready to watch a popular film series get turned into a television show that doesn’t share any of the attributes that made the franchise a success? Your chance is coming next year, as MTV has put in a series order for Scream, based in very, very small part on Wes Craven’s trilogy. Check out their announcement below, which is laid out in emoji. Because nothing strikes fear into the heart of humanity more than colorful digital representations.
I’ve never witnessed someone’s death quite like this, but it’s kind of humorous I guess, since the Scream films were did indeed blend comedy in with the slasher tropes. You’ll notice that the tweet doesn’t actually announce the series order, but that’s what the phone number is for. (Is it just us, or is putting phone numbers on Twitter kind of creepy in and of itself?) If you’ll call, you’ll get a digitally deepened voice saying this:
Do you like scary TV? Scream is coming to MTV. October 2015.”
Yeah, it’s corny as hell, especially the question, but it’s a fairly clever way of tying this announcement in with the way Scream used phones for its more frightening scenes, with Ghost Face asking different potential victims questions. Of course, there’s a reason why you don’t see a Ghost Face emoji in the tweet above, and that’s because the costumed persona won’t be used in the series, at least at this point. So no Craven, no Kevin Williamson, no Neve Campbell, no Ghost Face. We assume that the title might change to Scrame by the time October 2015 comes around.
What’s the same? Murder, of course. Aubrey Jenson (Bex Taylor-Klaus) is a teenager who appears in a viral video that somehow leads to a murder and the eventual undoing of her small town after its secret past comes to light. Aubrey’s old best friend Emma (Willa Fitzgerald) has tapped into the popular crowd and its sexed-up leader Brooke (Carlson Young). Aubrey’s new best friend Noah (John Karna) is a whiz with computers. (Find that viral video’s source, stat!) And there are other characters presumably doing other things that involve fear and hollering screaming.
It’s kind of crazy that MTV is waiting until next October to bring Scream to audiences, considering it was first given the green light back in April. Maybe this means writers Jay Beattie and Dan Dworkin will make this thing extra spooky to make up for the wait. That sounds like the kind of bet Deputy Dewey would make.
