Welcome back to Behind The Scenes Saturday!! Today is dedicated to one of my favorite horror films, Scream 3! I’ve been wanting to an article on this film for a long time and I finally have enough materials that I needed. So, be on the lookout for pigs like Milton, make sure you pack a second gun, and enjoy these fun pictures and bits of trivia!!

(Trivia provided by IMDb.com)

(Pictures provided by google.com and IMDb.com)

(SPOILER ALERT!!!)

• Patrick Dempsey (Mark) was hired just one day before filming began. He had to learn three of his big dialogue-heavy scenes in just one night.
• Téa Leoni was highly considered for the role of Jennifer, and she even had several callbacks during casting. However, filmmakers decided that Parker Posey was more suitable and she ended up winning the role. Selma Blair and Teri Hatcher were also considered for the role.
• David Arquette (Dewey) and Courteney Cox (Gale) got married just one month before principal photography began. They cut their honeymoon short in order to work on this film.

• The role of Steven Stone (Patrick Warburton) almost went to Stone Cold Steve Austin.
• The green outfit that Parker Posey (Jennifer) wears as Gale Weathers is the same exact outfit that Courteney Cox wore in the first Scream film.
• Paul Walker, Josh Hartnett, James Van Der Beek, Glenn Quinn, Charlie O’Connell and Johnathan L. Jackson were all considered for the role of Tom Prinze (Matt Keeslar).

• Since the sets for the first Scream film were destroyed after filming wrapped, all the sets had to be replicated for Stab 3.
• Benicio Del Toro was considered for the role of Roman Bridger.
• John Milton’s (Lance Henriksen) house at the end of the film is the same house used as the school for Halloween H20: 20 Years Later.

• Tara Reid, Monica, and Ali Larter were considered for the role of Sarah Darling.
• The publicity stills of young Maureen Prescott/Rina Reynolds are Lynn McRee’s real modeling photos from when she was younger.
• Before the role of Martha Meeks went to Heather Matarazzo, Fairuza Balk was considered.

• Sidney Prescott has less screen time in this film because Neve Campbell’s contract only allowed her to be on set for 20 days. Due to this, the filmmakers had to shoot around her short schedule and put more emphasis on the other characters.
• In the film, Roman Bridger (Scott Foley) complained that he had to make a horror film before he was allowed to make a classic love story. This was put in as a joke due to the fact that this film’s director, Wes Craven couldn’t direct the love story that he wanted to, Music Of The Heart until he made this film first.
• Because of fears that the film’s ending would be spoiled on the internet, this film never had a public test screening.

• Throughout the film, the actors and actresses of Stab 3 complained about re-writes and three different scripts. This was put in after the real cast complained about this film having constant rewrites and three different endings.
• Because Neve Campbell had to work on Drowning Mona at the same time as this film, she had to wear a wig for this production, which took 2 hours to apply each morning.
• Kevin Williamson, the writer of the first 2 Scream films, was unable to return to write this film due to his hectic schedule. He did however provide a basic outline for the film. Ehren Kruger, the film’s screenwriter completely ignored the outline and wrote the story mostly on the fly, with pages sometimes completed on the day they were to be filmed. The characters bore so little resemblance than how they were in the previous films, that Wes Craven had to step in and do re-writes. Kruger was later fired and Laeta Kalogridis stepped in to do some uncredited re-writes.

• Jamie Lee Curtis was offered the role of Bianca Burnette, but she turned it down and it went to Carrie Fisher. Heather Locklear was also considered for the role.
• After English actress Emily Mortimer had been cast as Angelina Tyler, production discovered that she didn’t have a permit to work in the States. She had to be flown to Canada in order to get the correct permit. This was also her first American film, so she had to speak with an American accent.
• Wes Craven briefly considered playing John Milton himself before Lance Henriksen was cast. Christopher Walken was also considered for the role.

• In a 2020 interview, David Arquette admitted that he was the one who advised Courteney Cox to cut her bangs like Bettie Page for the film and he’s the reason fans were subjected to the infamous Scream 3 bangs. They weren’t even Cox’s real bangs, but clip-on bangs, and because they only had the one pair, they couldn’t be changed after being cut like that.
• Due to the Columbine massacre, major changes were made to the production of this film. First off, they changed it from 2 killers to just 1. Second, the blood and violence were very toned down, and we’re given a more satirical and comedic kind of film. Also, no teenagers were killed in this film for obvious reasons.
• Mark was added to the climax of the film because producers realized that he just disappeared before the third act and his arc basically went nowhere. So they insisted that he should be a part of the ending.

• Liev Schreiber (Cotton) was working out a lot at the time of filming and he wanted to show off his physique, so he pushed to have his character take off his jacket during his scene.
• There was an alternate opening that was written but never filmed. The opening had Sidney living in a different state. She and her friend were watching a movie at her place when she got a call from someone saying they were the killer and they were in her house. The killer then jumped out of a closet and attempted to attack Sidney and her friend. Sidney pulled out a gun and shot the killer down, but it turned out to just be a Stab fan who was just pulling a messed up prank on Sidney.
• During development, one idea was to have Tori Spelling return to play Sidney Prescott in Stab 3. Another idea was to have Duane Martin return as Joel, Gale’s cameraman.

• In the film, Sarah Darling complained that she was 35 years old and playing a 21-year-old in Stab 3. Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg was actually 27-years-old at the time of filming.
• Kate Hudson was cast in the film but later replaced. It’s unknown if she was cast as Christine (Kelly Rutherford) or Sarah.
• In earlier drafts of the script, Sidney was revealed to be suicidal, in addition to suffering from nightmares and PTSD. There was a scene where Sidney is in the bathroom looking at the scars on her wrist from a failed suicide attempt. All of this was written out in later drafts.

• David Boreanaz was considered for the role of Mark Kincaid.
• Kate Winslet, Shannen Doherty, Liv Tyler, Jennifer Connelly, Rachel True, Keri Russell, Alyssa Milano, Denise Richards, Julie Benz, Vinessa Shaw, Anne Heche, and Charisma Carpenter were all considered for the role of Christine.
• Maureen Prescott’s stage name, Rina Reynolds was named after Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher’s mother.

• Alicia Silverstone was offered the role of Angelina, but she turned it down. Claire Danes, Christie Clark, Alyson Hannigan, Kellie Martin, Anna Friel, Danielle Harris, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Katie Holmes, Tracy Middendorf, Christina Ricci, and Eliza Dushku were also considered for the role.
• Scott Foley revealed that on set, Parker Posey would sometimes read poetry to him. He stated, “Parker used to take me by the hand, walk me to the lawn of whatever location we were on, and read poetry to me.”
• When Sidney stabbed Roman in the back with the icepick, Neve Campbell accidentally missed the pad she was supposed to hit and she actually pierced Scott Foley in the back. His screaming in the film was genuine. A similar incident happened in the first film with Skeet Ulrich accidentally being jabbed in the chest for real.

• Carrie Fisher helped re-write her character’s lines.
• An alternate idea filmmakers had for bringing Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) back for this film was to have him survive the stabbings in the second film and be secretly rescued by his family. This idea was scrapped as they felt it would be too far-fetched.
• Wes Craven confirmed that Angelina was supposed to be the second killer, as Roman’s girlfriend and Sidney’s ex-classmate. Fans have expressed the theory that she was the second killer and they faked her death so she could get away. If that was ever confirmed, it would make Angelina the only Ghostface who got away with it.

• Because of the script constantly changing, large amounts of unused footage was filmed. Randy’s video message was a three minute scene in the film, but there was over 2 hours of footage filmed for it.
• Liev Schreiber was the one who came up with the idea that his character should be killed off in the film’s opening scene.
• At one point during production, Mark’s partner, Detective Wallace (Josh Pais) was going to be one of the killers.

• There are three different versions of Cotton’s death scene, and his driving scene had to be shot three times as well to account for the continuity of each one.
• Different endings were shot considering Mark’s fate because the filmmakers weren’t sure whether the character should live or die.
• In the film, Tom implies that Sidney could be the killer. This was supposed to be meta foreshadowing as Angelina, who plays Sidney in Stab 3 was supposed to be one of the killers.

• Tyson (Deon Richmond) was supposed to be the film’s red herring. He was at the studio right before Sarah was killed, he was conveniently not at Jennifer’s house when it exploded and killed Tom, and he was present when Sidney was attacked at the Stab 3 set.
• Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith cameoed in the film as their famous stoner characters, Jay and Silent Bob. In return, Wes Craven cameoed as himself in Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back.