Kevin Williamson on His Post-‘Scream’ Dream and the Truth About His Netflix Cancellation
The data that sank his hit drama ‘Waterfront’ and his goal of making one more horror franchise ‘before I die’
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Kevin Williamson may be creatively done with Scream but not with screams.
“What I’d love to do before I die is to create another horror franchise, but that all starts with just one movie,” Williamson tells me. “You have to make one great movie and see what happens.”
But after his “one and done” stint directing Scream 7, he won’t be leading the next phase of the iconic 30-year-old franchise, though he says “I’m a phone call away,” adding, “as long as it stays fun, I would love to be a part of it. If they need my help, I’ll come running.”
Scream has been around for his entire career and half his life. In 1995, the unknown writer from a family of North Carolina fishermen made waves in Hollywood when his screenplay about a ghost-faced serial killer terrorizing teenagers sparked a bidding war — part of the 1990s spec script boom that also spawned Basic Instinct and The Fugitive. Scream, directed by the late legendary Wes Craven and budgeted below $15 million, scored $173 million at the worldwide box office (about $360 million today), launched a billion-dollar film franchise and put Williamson’s career into the stratosphere.
He’d go on to further define ’90s culture by writing Scream 2, and big-screen horror hits I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Faculty. He also created The WB’s massively popular Dawson’s Creek and Kevin Bacon-led crime thriller The Following and co-created CW hit The Vampire Diaries with Julie Plec.
Today, Williamson, now 61, remains booked and busy. He’s writing a pilot for Universal TV, where he inked an overall deal two years ago, which he described as “an adult Vampire Diaries” featuring the studio’s iconic monsters; working on a series adaptation of Ashley Elston’s bestseller First Lie Wins; a feature called The Audition set up at Spyglass; and a handful of other shows in various stages of development, some of which he’s writing and others he’s producing under his Outerbanks Entertainment banner — including a suburban serial killer series with what he calls a “You meets Dexter” vibe.
Still, Williamson saw firsthand how much the business is changing with his semi-autobiographical fishing crime drama The Waterfront, for Universal TV and Netflix. By traditional measures, the series looked like a success — weeks in Netflix’s global Top 10, multiple turns at No. 1. But it ultimately didn’t meet the streamer’s internal benchmarks fast enough to earn a second season. He has a lot to say about that below.
I recently caught up with the L.A.-based Williamson — on Friday the 13th, naturally — to talk about stepping back from Scream, what he learned from Netflix’s data-driven reality and why, after 30 years in the business, he’s still chasing that first hit feeling.
Below, he gets very candid about:
The Netflix completion data that doomed The Waterfront — and what it reveals about how success is now measured
The test screening that reshaped Scream 7’s marketing — and fueled its $64 million opening weekend, a record for the franchise
Why older audiences may be the most undervalued — and misunderstood — demo in streaming
What went wrong with his planned Dead Day series for Peacock, the comic adaptation he was co-creating with Julie Plec
Why most books make better limited series, and what he saw in First Lie Wins to give it ongoing-series potential
The “commercial brain” that’s guided his 30-year career — and the fear that still drives him