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.<\/p>\n
Patricia Arquette<\/a> and David Harbour<\/a> lead the film as real-life criminals Marjorie Diehl and Bill Rothstein, who were involved in an Erie, Pa., crime involving a collar bomb<\/a> that killed a hostage named Brian Wells (Tom McCarthy in the film) after he robbed a bank.<\/p>\n David Arquette on ‘Friends’ 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<\/a> and David Arquette<\/a> (also Cox’s ex-husband, who starred in several Scream movies with her).<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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).<\/p>\n 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.”<\/p>\n 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.”<\/p>\n 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<\/a> in a fun bit of casting that puts the Orange Is the New Black<\/a> alum back in prison on screen.<\/p>\n Courteney Cox and David Arquette in ‘Scream’ Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n “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!”<\/p>\n Evil Genius (produced by Jason Bateman) does not yet have a distributor or a confirmed release date.<\/p>\n![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/entertainment_weekly_785\/eb9870db1465a4e384e26855d21b338f.jpg\"\/)
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Credit: Warner Bros. Television<\/p>\n![\"Courteney](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/entertainment_weekly_785\/6291ac7ba276d916a2e9817ac5624c20.jpg\"\/)
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Credit: Dimension Films\/ Everett<\/p>\n