Key Points
Courteney Cox’s new directorial feature includes a surprise cameo from ex-husband and Scream and Friends alum David Arquette.
Arquette had a guest role on Friends, and played Cox’s love interest in several Scream films.
Evil Genius follows the real-life events surrounding the infamous pizza bomber incident that unfolded in Eric, Pa., in 2003.
Courteney Cox‘s network of connections from Friends and Scream will always be there for her.
The actress-filmmaker debuted Saturday her latest directorial feature, Evil Genius, which not only charts the real-life events surrounding the infamous 2003 pizza bomber incident, but also includes a major reunion for Cox with two Friends alums and Scream series star.
Patricia Arquette and David Harbour lead the film as real-life criminals Marjorie Diehl and Bill Rothstein, who were involved in an Erie, Pa., crime involving a collar bomb that killed a hostage named Brian Wells (Tom McCarthy in the film) after he robbed a bank.
David Arquette on ‘Friends’
Credit: Warner Bros. Television
About midway through the film, during the early stages of the dramatization of the heist, McCarthy’s Wells walks into a local PNC Bank branch and greets a bank teller and her manager, played by Friends guest stars Christine Taylor and David Arquette (also Cox’s ex-husband, who starred in several Scream movies with her).
The comical scene sees Taylor’s teller and Arquette’s manager build on each other’s confusion over the hostage’s ransom note, which includes conflicting instructions and contradictory commands.
Cox married the actor in 1999, after they worked together on the 1996 horror hit Scream. They’d go on to appear together in six franchise installments, with their in-movie story mirroring that of the real-life exes’ (their characters divorce in the films, just as the real-world couple did in 2014).
David (also the brother of Patricia, the aforementioned Boyhood Oscar winner who plays Diehl in the dark comedy) previously worked with Cox’s Friends team in 1996, in a guest role as Malcolm on season 3, episode 3, “The One With the Jam.”
Taylor appeared on three episodes across two different seasons as Bonnie, in episodes 24 and 25 of season 3 (“The One With the Ultimate Fighting Champion” and “The One at the Beach”), while she returned in season 4, episode 1, “The One With the Jellyfish.”
Cox’s film includes another cameo near the end, as she dramatizes the real-life Diehl’s imprisonment. While incarcerated, Diehl meets a fellow inmate, Carmen, briefly played by Dascha Polanco in a fun bit of casting that puts the Orange Is the New Black alum back in prison on screen.
Courteney Cox and David Arquette in ‘Scream’
Credit: Dimension Films/ Everett
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Cox, Harbour, and Patricia spoke to the audience Saturday after a screening of the film, with Cox responding to a question about how her past in comedic works influenced her hand as a director of the comedy-drama-thriller hybrid.
“Timing is important. I love music, so I think I’m good at timing. It helps with directing, editing, it helps with how far to take something and when is a nice time to get out before you stay too long. Comedy seems to be harder,” Cox told the audience, before joking, “I don’t get many drama roles!”
Evil Genius (produced by Jason Bateman) does not yet have a distributor or a confirmed release date.
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