Kevin Williamson Is Off Scream 4? Ehren Kruger Stepping In?

The last thing Scream fans want to hear is this (already questionable) fourth installment turning into another Cursed.

By that, I'm referring to the 2005 fright-flick reuniting director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson. It was supposed to do to the werewolf genre what the Scream trilogy did for slashers. With its highly-publicized production woes (restructuring the original plot, throwing out tons of footage with actors whose characters were ultimately written out of the final product, delaying its release over a year, etc.), that didn't happen needless to say.

But it's looking more and more likely the case with each passing news-item of another actor leaving and being replaced by another. And all these talks of on-set rewrites (a normal routine for your average production, true) are only adding fuel to that fire.

Zap2It says those rewrites aren't even being handled by series-creator Kevin Williamson who penned the first two installments and this newest effort. That responsibly is instead planted firmly on the shoulders of Ehren Kruger – no stranger to the franchise having written 2000s Scream 3 (working off a treatment by Williamson).

Furthermore in what confirms the suspicions of our very own Peter Georgiou, there appears to be a conflict over who will be the resident pop-culture centric film geek. Heroes star Hayden Panetierre was set to play that character in the form of Kirby, the sidekick/best friend to lead character Jill (played by Emma Roberts). However Erik Knudsen was among the new actors brought into the production with his character described as the new Randy.

Making matters worse is Panetierre is still a part of the production and her character hasn't been written out. Instead it sounds like she's going from the second-banana comic-relief (i.e. scene-stealer) to just another teenager for Ghostface to gut. She's reportedly pissed over the rewrites.

So I wouldn't be surprised if she vacates her role not unlike Laura Graham just did. Honestly, who could blame her if she does?