Exclusive: David Arquette Reveals the Secret Sauce of the 'Scream' Franchise
In 2026, moviegoers will once again get to see David Arquette in a brand new Scream movie. When Scream 7hits theaters next year, it will be the first time Kevin Williamson has returned to the franchise in a creative capacity since writing Scream 4 in 2011. For Arquette, the chance to work with Williamson again was part of the appeal of coming back to the iconic horror franchise.
"I was really excited to work with Kevin Williamson again. I mean, he's the writer of Scream, and he's directing this one," Arquette says. "It's a really great 360 moment. I can't really say too much about the movie, but I was really excited to work with Kevin. We've had such a history, and he wrote the original and created this entire world, and he just knows it better than anyone."
In another full-circle moment, Arquette is also starring in new commercials for Arby's, in which he's playing a kind of homage version of Sheriff Dewey Riley from Scream. It's not really Dewey Riley in the spooky-season themed ad, but Arquette knows that for Scream fans, it's close enough.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dmIfTrel8DA
"My sister wrote some of the copy for it. It was really fun to sort of relive that character, or a sort of version of that character," Arquette says. "But, I do really love these steak nuggets. I'm a big sauce guy. I know they say Arby's has the meat, but I like to say, they have the sauce."
Speaking of sauce, Arquette does have some thoughts about what exactly makes the Scream franchise so resilient. The first movie came out in 1996, and the franchise, despite some ups and downs, seems to be the most reliable horror franchise, perhaps, of all time. But why? What makes Scream different?
"I think it had a really unique take," Arquette reflects. "I think Scream really understood something ahead of its time. It knew that fan culture was the future. It was also ahead of the curve of being a horror movie that had a self-referential element to it. It balanced horror and comedy in a way that hadn't been done before."
Arquette also thinks that thanks to Scream and the world of streaming, audiences embrace horror in ways that weren't even possible in the 1990s. "I mean, we would get a Twilight Zone marathon on TV back then," he says. "But now you can easily go and watch all the classic films. You can get into Night of the Living Dead and Friday the 13th. It's great, because they're al so wonderful to rewatch and you can learn all about 'em. There's something, for me, that's really nostalgic about going back and watching those older movies."