{"id":445350,"date":"2026-02-25T19:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T19:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/445350\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T19:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T19:47:09","slug":"scream-7-rewrites-neve-campbell-salary-and-melissa-barreras-firing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/445350\/","title":{"rendered":"Scream 7 Rewrites, Neve Campbell Salary and Melissa Barrera’s Firing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhen Ghostface returns to the big screen, the knife-wielding masked murderer is primed to make a box office killing. \u201cScream 7<\/a>,\u201d the latest installment in the long-running horror franchise, is tracking a scary-good debut of $45 million to $50 million in North America. Those estimates would deliver a series-best kickoff, underscoring Paramount and Spyglass\u2019 success in reviving a property that only 10 years ago was deader than one of the notorious slasher\u2019s many victims.<\/p>\n

\n\tYet the journey back to theaters has been tumultuous, with a dramatic firing and high-profile cast and creative exits that required a major revamp of the script \u2014 and prompted a vocal backlash from fans.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn late 2023, Melissa Barrera, the star of 2022\u2019s \u201cScream\u201d reboot and 2023\u2019s \u201cScream VI,\u201d was fired from the seventh installment by Spyglass over social media messages the production company deemed antisemitic<\/a>. After war broke out in Gaza that year, Barrera reshared a post accusing Israel of \u201cgenocide and ethnic cleansing\u201d as well as a magazine article alleging the Israeli government was distorting \u201cthe Holocaust to boost the Israeli arms industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShortly after Barrera\u2019s axing, her on-screen sister Jenna Ortega, whose profile has skyrocketed since she and Barrera joined the \u201cScream\u201d team, announced she wouldn\u2019t return for \u201cScream 7.\u201d She cited scheduling conflicts<\/a> with her hit Netflix series \u201cWednesday.\u201d Amid the turmoil, the film\u2019s original director, Christopher Landon, left the project because he was getting death threats<\/a> over Barrera\u2019s firing, even though he didn\u2019t make the decision to boot her.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt a creative crossroads, \u201cScream\u201d producers turned to franchise veteran Kevin Williamson to take over directing duties on the seventh film. He and Guy Busick, a writer on the prior two installments, co-wrote the screenplay \u2014 which needed a serious retooling given the exits of Ortega and Barrera, whose characters were the protagonists of \u201cScream VI\u201d in lieu of Neve Campbell<\/a>\u2019s resilient heroine Sidney Prescott. Sources peg the cost of the rewrite at roughly $500,000, which they say isn\u2019t a major expenditure for a franchise of this size.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the sixth film, Paramount executives were concerned about making a \u201cScream\u201d movie without Campbell, who didn\u2019t return over a salary dispute. However, the studio\u2019s say in the matter was limited because Spyglass had the final ruling on creative decisions. Any fears were quelled when \u201cScream VI\u201d earned $161 million at the global box office, the biggest haul since the first two installments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tWithout the red-hot Ortega on board for the sequel, though, Paramount and Spyglass knew they needed a killer marketing hook. Spyglass chief Gary Barber is known as one of Hollywood\u2019s toughest dealmakers, but this time around, Campbell had more leverage to return<\/a>. The actor was able to secure a nearly $7 million deal, a hefty raise and a major salary for the horror genre. Courteney Cox, who has appeared in every \u201cScream\u201d film since the original 1996 slasher, was awarded a $2 million payday.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNeve Campbell is to \u2018Scream\u2019 what Jamie Lee Curtis is for the \u2018Halloween\u2019 franchise,\u201d says Shawn Robbins, director of movie analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. \u201cShe\u2019s a big draw, especially for older generations who grew up with the original films.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount and Spyglass are banking on nostalgia, as well as the enduring popularity of horror, to propel the slasher series to new box office heights. (The studio is tempering expectations by projecting a debut closer to $40 million; meanwhile, rivals and independent tracking services are predicting the initial figure could exceed $50 million.) That\u2019s because production costs on \u201cScream 7\u201d began to balloon as the film was delayed a year. The seventh chapter carries a $45 million budget, up from the sixth film\u2019s $35 million price tag. One source notes that inflation, which has impacted everything from set construction to travel expenses, is partly responsible for the bigger budget.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cInitially there was thought that the momentum from the two previous films could be lost. And there\u2019s certainly a section of the audience that\u2019s upset about who is not coming back,\u201d says Robbins. \u201cBut now the pendulum is swinging. This is driving a lot of interest about how certain characters are coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd this likely won\u2019t be Ghostface\u2019s final reign of terror. Insiders suggest plans are already in place for the killer\u2019s lethal return in an eighth film. Tell the survivors to hide their families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Ghostface returns to the big screen, the knife-wielding masked murderer is primed to make a box office…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,41280,30382,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-445350","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-neve-campbell","11":"tag-scream-7","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}