Scream Directors Developing Monster Movie for Universal

The filmmaking collective Radio Silence, consisting of directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and producer Chad Villela, found major success with both last year‘s Scream and this year’s Scream VI, which has earned them a lot of attention from a variety of studios, with Deadline confirming the trio has been tapped to develop an Untitled Monster Thriller for Universal Pictures. Plot details have been kept under wraps, though the script was written by Stephen Sheilds and earned revisions from Guy Busick. This project was reportedly going to be their Scream follow-up, though Paramount then wanted to fast-track this year’s Scream VI.

While there isn’t a Scream 7 yet confirmed, it’s unclear how the development of this project would impact the status of that tentative sequel, or if Radio Silence was going to be involved in that project regardless. The financial success of the last two installments would make their return likely, but in the month since the release of Scream VI, no sequel has been announced.

Universal Pictures has arguably the most iconic roster of monsters in cinematic history, possessing the rights to figures like Dracula, The Wolf Man, and Frankenstein’s Monster, with the studio announcing back in 2017 that the Tom Cruise-starring The Mummy was set to kick off its Dark Universe, an interconnected universe of reboots. The underwhelming financial and critical reception to that film saw future plans stagnate indefinitely, with some of those planned projects being scrapped entirely.

In 2020, Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man was a standalone adventure that reimagined the original movie, which earned critical acclaim and a strong box office performance, though it was impacted by theater closures in response to the coronavirus pandemic. That film’s success ignited reports of various other standalone revivals, including new takes on Dracula and The Wolf Man. Hitting theaters this Friday is Universal’s Renfield, which focuses on Dracula’s assistant as opposed to the iconic blood-sucker. 

Deadline claims that this new movie will fall more in line with projects like The Invisible Man and Renfield, in that they incorporate iconic creatures yet aren’t direct reboots or feature connections to other films.

Radio Silence are also reportedly attached to a new Escape from New York, yet the status of that project is unknown, with it possible that the filmmakers could drop out of that revival or merely develop it before enlisting other filmmakers to bring it to life.

Stay tuned for details on Radio Silence’s Untitled Monster Thriller.

Are you looking forward to the new project? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!