Scream 7 loses director Christopher Landon which follows Jenna Ortega bailing on the franchise and the firing of Melissa Barrera.
Christopher Landon was named as the director of Scream 7 following the successful revival of the franchise with the recent 2022 and 2023 hit movies. Landon was developing Scream 7 with James Vanderbilt, who wrote and produced the two recent reboots and who is writing the current script of Scream 7.
Landon tweeted the news on Saturday.
“I guess now is as good a time as any to announce I formally exited Scream 7 weeks ago,” he said. “This will disappoint some and delight others. It was a dream job that turned into a nightmare. And my heart did break for everyone involved. Everyone. But it’s time to move on. I have nothing.”
Update: Melissa Barrera responds as follows on her Instagram Story.
“I hope this Christmas feels… weird,” she said. “I hope you can’t ignore the fact that you’re celebrating the birth of a child who was persecuted and targeted and his parents forced to flee to Egypt while right now millions of Palestinians from the exact part of the world are being persecuted and targeted and forced to flee their homes while they are indiscriminately and relentlessly bombed. Merry XMas.”
Original article continues:
Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega exit
The departures of Christopher Landon and Jenna Ortega follow the Nov. 21 firing of Melissa Barrera following her social media posts about the Israel-Hamas War.
Barrera posted on her Instagram Story at the time, “Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp. Cornering everyone together, with no where to go, no electricity no water … People have learnt nothing from our histories. And just like our histories, people are still silently watching it all happen. THIS IS GENOCIDE & ETHNIC CLEANSING.”
Following her statement, the production company that owns Scream fired the actress and released the following statement.
“Spyglass’ stance is unequivocally clear: We have zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech,” stated Spyglass Media Group.
Landon also reacted in a deleted tweeted to fans following Melissa Barrera getting fired: “This is my statement: 💔 Everything sucks. Stop yelling. This was not my decision to make.”
A day later, Jenna Ortega left Scream 7, the second lead of the new movies, with it claimed not because of the Melissa Barrera situation but because she wasn’t signed for another movie.
THR also adds that James Vanderbilt continues writing Scream 7 but the entire movie will need to be written from the ground up.
The 2022 Scream and the 2023 Scream VI brought in over $300 million on budgets of only around $24 million and $35 million, respectively.
