Original ‘Scream 3’ Script Was Rejected, Now Turned Into A TV Show

The Scream franchise had a lot going for it after it finally got off the ground, even though it had a bumpy start. With so much success and credits for the revival of the slasher genre in horror, Scream was all but guaranteed to get sequels made, and that was the original plan by the creator/screenwriter, Kevin Williamson.

What started as a “high-profile” script that was floating around Hollywood ended up having some tough bumps in the road, but later paid off for Williamson and Wes Craven. Even though Craven and the studio did not have big plans for the film after it’s initial run, Williamson did. He had originally envisioned it as a trilogy and the original script that he had penned for Scream 3 would have been a blockbuster film had it made it to the finish line.

In a report by Wicked Horror, the original script for Scream 3 would have seen the return of Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard).

This is the part of the article where the four, maybe five, people in the world that have not seen Scream need to warned: there will be some major SPOILERS ahead. If you have not seen the film (shame on you), then you should only proceed with that spoiler warning in mind.

“Scream 3”
Don’t love it, don’t hate it but it is the worse from all the Scream movies but I do like the whole movie within a movie concept pic.twitter.com/syW01Yhivs

— Tristan Spears (@Tristan_Spears_) May 7, 2017

Okay, so now that we have gotten the moral and civil liabilities out of the way, let’s just discuss why the return of Stu would have been a truly epic masterpiece for Scream 3.

First of all, Stu Macher (along with Billy Loomis) was perhaps best known to be the biggest twist ending in a slasher movie since Norman Bates. Not only did the film spend 99 percent of its time proving that the two degenerate teenagers were not the killers, but they even went as far as to arrest Billy under the suspicion of murder, only to later be cleared by the police following crucial evidence that came to light. It was clever and intensely mind-blowing.

“We all go a little crazy sometimes…” Billy Loomis said, giving credit to Norman Bates in Psycho.

But that is the real kicker. When it was finally revealed at the end of Scream that Billy and Stu were the deadly duo, they ended up getting punked by the innocent little “Final Girl.” Sidney Prescott turned the tables on them with some quick thinking ingenuity and presumably sent them to their graves.

Not so fast, though.

In Kevin Williamson’s mind, Stu Macher survived the attack by Sidney at the epic conclusion and ended up in prison. Even though Billy Loomis would still be cold by the time Scream 3 would roll around, it would be Stu who was going to get the last laugh.

With the thought of bringing back Stu Macher in Scream 3, Kevin Williamson envisioned a world were Stu could still get to Sydney, even behind bars. It could have also implied that he was also getting to her in Scream 2, but that little detail has never been revealed.

The thought process here was simple. In Scream 3, there was supposed to be a “Puppet Master behind the Mask,” so to speak. It would eventually be revealed that Stu had been accepting communications with “fans” of his while in prison and his grand plan would have been for those fans to carry out his last wishes while he was incarcerated.

Stu / Scream
“Everybody dies but us. We get to carry on and plan the sequel cause let’s face it, baby, these days, you gotta have a sequel.” pic.twitter.com/QMjiQJ1fee

— tiffany ????? (@sighashby) June 9, 2017

But in the end the studio had to give the storyline the axe, but not because the story was not good. Think back to what was going on in the world while Scream 3 was being produced in 1999. There was a rash of school shootings that was bookended by the infamous Columbine massacre. The studio ordered a last-minute rewrite of the script out of what it considered to be a public responsibility. They even asked director Wes Craven to not make it a horror movie and show no blood, but they obviously lost the battle on that one. But they did win the rewrite order and Scream 3 ended up being about Sydney’s long-lost half-brother.

So what did Kevin Williamson end up doing with his original idea for Scream 3? Well, like any good writer, he used the concept for the hit Fox TV show The Following.

[Featured Image by Dimension Films]