Scream 5 star Courteney Cox has offered a little more insight into the direction of the upcoming slasher sequel, calling it a "new franchise". The actress, who returns to the series after a decade, characterizes the new Scream as a fresh start, with the movie likely taking notes from recent horror outings such as 2018's Halloween which ignored all subsequent sequels released after the original.

"This is the fifth one... it's not Scream 5, though. This is Scream. The directors are incredible, they're making it absolutely...it's a new franchise... It's hip. It's scary. It's just a new Scream. It's not a reboot, it's not a remake, it's just a brand-new launch. I think it's gonna be fantastic."

The Scream franchise has always been known for its meta-approach to the genre so, if the fifth movie does 'do a Halloween' and ignore the multiple follow-ups, expect references and jokes alluding to this fact.

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, it has previously been revealed that the new Scream will indeed move the franchise along, taking inspiration from more contemporary horror outings such as Jordan Peele's Get Out."We've talked about Jordan Peele's body of work a lot, because what he's doing is the closest thing to something that we hope to do, and that we love in terms of, tonally, where it's fun, and it's about something, and it's exciting, and it's not just one thing," Bettinelli-Olpin said of their approach to the project.

He continued saying, "We talked about the visual style of Us a lot when we were talking about this, because it captured something very honest and organic while also feeling like a big, fun movie, and to be able to do those two things simultaneously and have an indie vibe that's also a big, fun, popcorn movie... That's what, to us, Wes Craven mastered with Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream, where he's able to walk that line, and that's the newest thing in that lineage for us."

Not much is yet known about the plot other than it will reportedly follow the story of a young woman who returns to her old hometown, only to encounter horrific murder cases connected to a notorious masked serial killer. Many of the original cast are due to return including David Arquette as Dewey Riley, Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, Marley Shelton as Judy Hicks, Roger L. Jackson as the voice of Ghostface, and Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers. They will be joined by newcomers Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Jack Quaid, Mason Gooding, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Dylan Minnette, Mikey Madison, Sonia Ben Ammar and Kyle Gallner.

Not only will the movie itself lean more into the modern-day state of things, but so has the approach to making it, with several drafts of the script being written in an attempt to limit the current climate of spoilers and keep the identity of the killer a secret. "I think the two things to remember for us. One is there are multiple versions of the draft out there and most of the cast don't know if they have the right version or not," said producer William Sherak. "So we've been playing that game with them as well. And the fun of a Scream movie is that everyone is guilty until proven innocent, not the other way around. So the goal is to keep that going for as long as possible and have fun with it."

Filming for the Scream revival took place in Wilmington, North Carolina, from September to November 2020, and is scheduled to be released on January 14, 2022, by Paramount Pictures. This comes to us courtesy of The Drew Barrymore Show.