Christopher Landon explains why he stepped away from Scream 7 and the Arachnophobia reboot

In a new interview, director Christopher Landon explains why he stepped away from Scream 7 and the Arachnophobia reboot

On June 11, 2018, it was announced that genre regular James Wan’s company Atomic Monster was teaming up with Amblin to produce a remake of the 1990 “nature run amok” horror film Arachnophobia – and almost exactly four years later, we heard that that Christopher Landon, director of Happy Death Day and Freaky, would be writing and directing the new take on Arachnophobia. Fourteen months after that, it was announced that Landon was set to direct Scream 7. But, as it turns out, Landon won’t be making either of those movies – and in a new interview with Vanity Fair, he revealed exactly why he stepped away from both projects.

As we all know, Scream 7 completely fell apart around Landon. At one time, it was expected that Scream (2022) and Scream VI leads Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega would be the leads in this sequel as well. But then Barrera was fired from the project after comments she made about the Israel-Hamas war didn’t go over well with executives at Spyglass, and soon after we learned that Ortega wasn’t going to be involved either. Landon sent out a statement saying that he was dropping out because his dream job had turned into a nightmare. In the Vanity Fair article, we learn exactly how nightmarish the situation got.

Landon said that when Barrera was fired, the movie “all came tumbling down in an instant. It was devastating to suddenly cancel everything. People were threatening to kill me and my family, to the point where the FBI was getting involved. I got messages saying, ‘I’m going to find your kids, and I’m going to kill them because you support child murder.’ The head of security at various studios and the FBI had to examine the threats. It was highly aggressive and really scary. I did not fire her. A lot of people think I had something to do with it, and it was not my doing. I had no control of the situation at all. I think in the absence of people understanding how Hollywood works and what the hierarchy is, the fans were like, ‘that’s the guy.’ And so they came for me, knives out.” Spyglass wanted him to start on board the project as it was reworked. “They wanted me to continue on. They basically said, ‘You can restart it. You can figure it out.’ But the amount of abuse that I had to deal with—I decided I didn’t want to give any part of myself to that. For me, it was not worth it. I would rather put my efforts into something else, where I could feel appreciated and respected. The hate and abuse really spoiled it for me, and I lost my love for the idea of going forward. In the midst of all the chaos, I was grieving the loss of one of my dream jobs. I went through all the stages—I was shocked, I was sad, and then I got angry. To be a part of this legacy, it was really hard to let it go.“

As for the Arachnophobia reboot, it got close to going into production, but “There was a component that the studio was very nervous about and uncomfortable with—and that’s where we parted. I wasn’t willing to compromise on that. I wasn’t going to make a change that really felt like a soul-crushing, sell-out, bad change.“

We don’t know what’s going on with the Arachnophobia reboot now that Landon isn’t involved, but Scream 7 has been re-developed. Neve Campbell has signed on to return as franchise heroine Sidney Prescott, back in the lead role, while Kevin Williamson, who wrote the screenplay for the original Scream, directs the film from a screenplay by 2022’s Scream and Scream VI writer Guy Busick, who crafted the story with his co-writer on the fifth and sixth films, James Vanderbilt. (Vanderbilt is also a producer on the most recent sequels.) It’s heading for a February 27, 2026 theatrical release. Landon says that “There’s no resentment at all. What else are you going to do? Wallow? Then they win. My best revenge was making something cool, and I feel like I did with Drop. My revenge wasn’t rooted in pain or anger; it was rooted in joy and moving forward. I want Scream to succeed. Kevin probably made a banger of a movie, because he knows it better than anybody. It’s going to be awesome.“

As Landon mentioned, he has made a thriller called Drop, which is set for an April 11th theatrical release. Written by Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach, Drop centers on a single mother who receives disturbing AirDrop messages from an anonymous and malicious entity threatening the safety of her son and babysitter at home. The anonymous party threatens Fahy’s character to kill her date, or else. The movie unfolds over a single night and happens in real time.

Meghann Fahy (The Perfect Couple) stars as the single mother and is joined in the cast by Violett Beane (The Flash), Brandon Sklenar (1923), Jeffery Self (The Horror of Dolores Roach), Gabrielle Ryan (Power Book IV: Force), and newcomer Jacob Robinson, who has a large following on his parent-run Tik Tok account. Blumhouse founder Jason Blum is producing Drop alongside Platinum Dunes’ Michael Bay, Bradley Fuller, and Cameron Fuller, with Cameron being acknowledged as the person who brought the Jacobs / Roach script to Platinum Dunes in the first place. Sam Lerner serves as executive producer. The film is set up at Universal.

JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray already had the chance to watch Drop and gave it an 8/10 review that can be read at THIS LINK. Bumbray said this is “one of (Blumhouse’s) best movies in a long time and the kind of tightly-paced, ninety-minute thriller we need more of. I had a blast.“ Landon has described the film as a blend of Hitchcock and the style of ’90s thrillers.

Are you looking forward to Drop? What do you think of what Landon had to say about his Scream 7 and Arachnophobia experiences? Let us know by leaving a comment below.