‘SCREAM’ ON!
Arquette far from dead as 5th flick looms
If Wes Craven couldn’t kill David Arquette, who can?
No one, apparently. The actor has a new movie, “Spree,” out Friday, is preparing to shoot the fifth “Scream” film and will be the subject of a documentary out Aug. 28. Its title is apt:
“You Cannot Kill David Arquette.”
That’s not a bad deal for the 48-year-old, who was supposed to be bumped off in the original “Scream” in 1996.
“The fact that [Craven] kept me alive when I was supposed to die after the first film was a real thrill,” Arquette told the Daily News on Wednesday.
“Spree,” which drops on digital and on demand, is about horrific events that begin through social media.
“People can be mean online,” Arquette told The News. “It happens quite a bit. They can assume things about you. You know, I had somebody on Instagram trying to impersonate me for weeks and weeks and weeks.” Arquette is also known for films such as “Never Been Kissed,” but it’s his role as Deputy Dwight “Dewey” Cox in the “Scream” films that made him such a familiar face.
“Scream 5,” the latest in the slasher series, is currently slated for next year.
And though he’s “sworn to secrecy” regarding details, Arquette said he’s “really excited” that ex-wife Courteney Cox will reprise her role as Gale, Dewey’s wife as of “Scream 4.” Franchise creator Kevin Williamson, who wrote “Scream 2” and “Scream 4,” is also on board.
With those two locked in and “Ready or Not” filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett at the helm — following the 2015 death of series director and “Master of Horror” Craven — Arquette is optimistic that “Scream 5” will “be a re y exc ng, un hopefully relaunch the franchise.”
It’s currently up in the air whether Neve Campbell, who stars as Sidney Prescott, will return.
In the meantime, Arquette was game to reflect on the iconic franchise, which kicked off in 1996 and, in addition to its many sequels, has led to a documentary and an MTVturned-VH1 series.
“My favorite [of the films] is ‘Scream 1,’ just because that’s where it all started and it was such a surprise how the audience loved it so much,” Arquette told The News. “And getting to work with Wes for the first time was a real dream come true.”
Unsurprisingly to “Scream” diehards, Arquette named the third film as his least favorite.
But Arquette fans are in for yet another side to the “Eight Legged Freaks” star in “You Cannot Kill David Arquette.”
The documentary is “a love letter to wrestling,” which Arquette said “traces my experience in professional wrestling” after he was named the WCW champion in 2000, angering the wrestling community, though he now understands their position.
“After years of being bullied online and just being the butt of all the jokes, I wanted to make this documentary as a love letter to wrestling, return and properly train to wrestle again,” he explained. “You can’t please everyone, but for a big portion of the wrestling community, especially the people I wrestled in front of and got to meet on the road, I do think I changed their opinion. … And I feel like I did change the narrative.”