A lot's happened to the landscape of horror films since the original Scream trilogy wrapped a decade ago. The lank-haired pasty-faced female ghouls of J-horror; the Saws and Hostels and their ilk; PG-13 teen-friendly fare; and of course the restarting and/or remaking of practically any horror franchise with lasting name-recognition, which we're sure Scream 4 will be po-mo enough to comment on.
Plenty of material for screenwriter Kevin Williamson then, who confirmed to the New York Post that those are the directions he's planning to take the script, whilst being very careful not to come off like National Lampoon: "Scary Movie spoofed these films, so one of the things I'm excited about with Scream 4 is that, while we do send up the genre, we make it incredibly scary. That's first and foremost."
We've known for a long time that Williamson would be back for the Scream re-launch (he wrote the first two, and sketched out the third, leaving the actual writing to Ehren Kruger due to TV commitments), along with Courtney Cox and David Arquette. Wes Craven is still in talks, and it was recently revealed that, contrary to initial reports, Neve Campbell would return as three-time Final Girl Sidney.
We wondered before whether this would be a pre-credits cameo in the style of Drew Barrymore's iconic Scream 1 apearance, and while it sounds as if it's a more significant role than that, Williamson still won't quite guarantee that she survives.
"There are a lot of twists and turns, so I can't promise anything," he says. "There are a lot of moving pieces, so we'll see, but if you're a Scream fan, I think you're really going to like it."
So what do you think? Could the franchise work without Sid? Would it still be Scream without her? And if she stays aboard the whole series, does she not run the risk of becoming the Jessica Fletcher of horror?