Williamson Clarifies on Neve Campbell and Scream 4
A few days ago, news broke that Neve Campbell was unlikely to return for Scream 4. The story came from screenwriter Kevin Williamson’s Twitter account, was up for a short time, then was pulled–leading to all kinds of speculation and discussion amongst horror fans as to why Campbell (who hasn’t done a lot of work post-Scream) wouldn’t come back.
The story highlights a number of issues–most notably Twitter as a news source. I’m not opposed to tweets dispensing news (I think we’ve all used them at this point), but there’s an inherent danger in taking anything said on Twitter too seriously–it’s 140 characters at most, which doesn’t allow for a great deal of detail. In a perfect world, Twitter would serve as a good story idea generator for real journalists. Someone would see Williamson’s Scream 4 tweet and then would get him to clarify and we’d have a real story. Unfortunately, that isn’t how it usually works. Everyone tends to make the tweet (Jesus Christ–this is why I fucking hate Twitter…every goddamn thing has to be some cutesy word. If someone told me a year ago that I’d type the word “tweet” three times in one paragraph I’d have punched them in the face and called them a fucking liar) the story instead.
Anyway, The New York Post’s Pop Wrap got Williamson to clarify things a bit. The tweet was essentially true, but Williamson gives us more than 140 words of explanation.
“I’ve had numerous conversations with Neve. She’s a friend. Nicest girl on the planet. It just ain’t workin’ out and it sucks for me. It was no cameo. I’d never play Sid out that way. 
And I ain’t got no Sid-less scenario. So, I don’t know yet what to do. Hate all the wrong info circulating. My fault. There’s a learning curve with Twitter. I gotta watch it. kev”
Still no details on the “why” of her not returning, but now we know he wasn’t bringing her back just for a quickie cameo to kill her off.
I’ve been trying to figure out how I felt about the whole “no Neve in Scream 4” thing for the past few days. Now that this info has come out, I can say it’s disappointed. If they’re going to do more, I’d like to see as much of the original cast back as possible.
Tags: casting news, Kevin Williamson, Neve Campbell, Scream 4, Slasher movies
