‘Scream Queens’ Season 1: Everything We Know, Plus How Ryan Murphy Scored Jamie Lee Curtis

Production for the first season of Fox’s upcoming series, Scream Queens, is well underway in New Orleans. The new show from American Horror Story’s Ryan Murphy is set to premiere next month and is expected to be a cross between Halloween and Mean Girls, with plenty of humor mixed between.

Speaking of humor, Scream Queens will feature plenty of comedic moments, including one involving Jamie Lee Curtis. In the second episode of the series, Curtis makes a nod to her famous killer in the horror movie franchise, Halloween.

“That’s just a little homage to all those people who loved that movie,” Curtis told Variety. “It made me smile.”

With multiple horror series having success in the TV world —The Walking Dead is one example– Fox is putting a lot on the line in Scream Queens. Along with adding a bit of comedy to the genre, Murphy has managed to put together a solid cast, including Emma Roberts, Ariana Grande, Keke Palmer, and Nick Jonas.

In addition to the stellar cast, Murphy has promised that the show will include one death every week, just to keep the audience on their toes. With the first trailer already being released, the show has successfully managed to build up a good amount of hype in the social media sphere.

In fact, Variety is reporting that Scream Queens is the top program on Instagram due to the amount of fan engagement on posts made by the cast.

Meanwhile, although the series will be starring a number of talented actors and actresses, Curtis was the one person Murphy had in mind to complete the series.

“I made that clear to Dana and Gary,” Murphy stated. “It’s not going to work unless we get Jamie Lee.”

The only issue with casting Lee for the main part in the series was that she declined the offer. “It is rarefied air to have someone call you up and say, ‘I am writing something for you,'” Curtis explained. “It’s only happened to me a few times.”

However, when she found out that filming was going to take place in New Orleans, she backed out. “The easiest no I ever said,” she revealed. “My son is still in high school, and I am the matriarch of my family…I walked away from this.”

Luckily, Murphy didn’t give up on Curtis so easily. He came up with a special production schedule that worked around her family commitments. “We gave her a deal that I thought was very cool,” he stated. “She was totally worth it to me.”

Scream Queens is set to premiere September 22, 2015, on FOX.

[Image Courtesy: FOX]