Goodbye Sidney; Is Scream 5 off?

Update! : Someone that should know whether or not the “Scream” series will continue dropped us an email overnight. The email reads “Guys, you may be correct – but at this stage we haven’t decided anything about “Scream 5” (if you want to update your article to reflect that). Appreciate the kind words on the film.” So there you have it, still a chance we may get the next two instalments in the Kevin Williamson penned trilogy.

When “Scream 4” was announced —- so was “Scream 5” and “Scream 6”. You see, Kevin Willamson had mapped out a new trilogy – with the recently-released “Scream 4” the first chapter of it – though one that would be closely connected to the original three films. Obviously things changed a bit when Williamson left the movie half-way through (and was replaced by Ehren Kruger), after getting into a bit of a tiff with the producers, but up until the release of “Scream 4” a few weeks ago, chapters 5 and 6 were still very much on the cards.

Unfortunately, “Scream 4” didn’t make as much as the producers had hoped it would – though $18 million isn’t too shabby. By beancounter accounts though, it’s a failure (though not creatively speaking, I enjoyed it!) and it’s left a lot of people asking, ‘Why’?

E! Online‘s Answer Bitch believes the film failed not so much because of the content but because it was a sequel – – to a 15-year-old film. Sequels, the columnist says, aren’t as appealing to audiences these days; remakes, however, are.

“If Scream 4 proved anything other than that irony is on its deathbed, it’s that horror reboots have a better chance of survival in the current cinematic marketplace than continuing sagas,” says box office analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations. “If there is a Scream 5, expect it to be re-titled Scream, and don’t expect David Arquette, Courteney Cox or Neve Campbell to return unless it’s in a cameo—in the form of a body bag.”

But on that note, will there be a “Scream 5”?

Over the past week or so we’ve spoken to a few in-the-know folks who had all heard the same thing : “The Scream franchise will likely end here, at least for the moment.”

Personally, I think that’s sad – I loved that the original cast were back for this “Scream”, just as I appreciated Jeff Bridges coming back for “Tron Legacy”; and though these ‘reboots’ are insanely popular – can anyone honestly say the new “Nightmare on Elm Street”, “Prom Night”, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, “Arthur” or “Friday the 13th” films were even half-as-good as “Scream 4”!? I think it’s the better film. Reboots are genuinely… let’s admit it… inferior. But still, there is ‘hope’ for the good-old sequel, what with “Fast Five” doing huge business at the box office – – and it’s ‘part 5’ in a series! – and you just know that this new “Transformers” sequel is going to blow the competition away when it releases in a couple of months too. I think maybe the lesson learnt here with “Scream 4” (and maybe “Tron Legacy”) is not to wait so long to do another sequel – the audience will still be there three or four years later, but fifteen? Most of your original audience will have moved on and the new target audience, those say, 17 or 18? They mightn’t even be familiar with the “Scream” series – having only been 3 or 4 years-old when the first one came out.

There are quite a few sequels to old classics still in the works – “Beverly Hills Cop 4”, “Die Hard 5”, “Terminator 5” – but so, so, so many more ‘reboots’ on the way like…. “Fright Night”, “Robocop”, “The Birds”, “Child’s Play”, “Hellraiser”, “Children of the Corn”, “The Crow”, “The Amazing Spider-Man”, “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”, “Battle Royale”, “Cliffhanger”, “Conan”, “Daredevil”, “Death Wish”, “Drop Dead Fred”, “Fantastic Four”, “Escape from New York”, “Flight of the Navigator”, “Footloose”, “F/X”, “Highlander”, “The Monster Squad”, “The Never-Ending Story”, “Pet Sematary”, “Overboard”, “Superman”, “Red Dawn”, “The Shadow”, “Romancing the Stone”, “Evil Dead”, “Short Circuit”, “Teen Wolf”, “Westworld”, “Tomb Raider”…… and I could go on, but I won’t… I’ve a bike to fix!

What do you guys think? Is the sequel doomed?