15 Fascinating Facts and Trivia You Didn’t Know About ‘Scream 3’

There’s so much debate about what’s the best Scream sequel. Some prefer the college atmosphere of Scream 2 while others (like myself) love the film-centric vibes of Scream 3. Before you go rewatch Scream 3 to gear up for the next release in the franchise, read up on these cool behind-the-scenes facts about the movie. You might just change your mind about your faves. Remember: Spoilers ahead.

Welcome To Sunrise Studios

Rather than taking place in Woodsboro or a college campus, most of Scream 3 takes place on the set of the fictional horror movie, Stab 3. The fictional production company Sunrise Studios plays such a large role in the plot that the real world had a little Easter egg for it. The original Scream 3 website looked like the homepage for Sunrise Studios–a nice little find for Scream superfans at the time.

They Almost Let Randy Survive

After Jamie Kennedy’s Randy Meeks died in Scream 2, fans were pissed. An early draft of Scream 3 had Randy coming back, having revealed that he didn’t die in the previous movie after all. While that certainly would have appeased the heartbroken Randy superfans, they ultimately changed their minds. In the end, Randy comes back as a posthumous video tape explaining how the rules change when you’re working with a horror trilogy.

Neve Campbell’s Reduced Role

Scream has always been about Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott. From the murder of her mom to her boyfriend’s mom coming back for revenge, she’s been through a lot. So it might have come as a surprise that she didn’t seem to get as much screen time in the third Scream. Because she was also working on Party of Five and Drowning Mona at the time, she could only commit to 20 days of shooting. That explains why so many other characters pulled the focus.

Introducing “Courtney Cox Arquette”

There’s a little change to the credits compared to the preceding Scream films. Courtney Cox added an “Arquette” to her name. That’s because she and David Arquette, who plays fan-favorite Dewey, got married only a month before principal photography began. They even had to cut their honeymoon short. The pair has since divorced so now she’s back to her original name sans “Arquette.”

Liev Schreiber’s Massive Guns

Actors can make some pretty weird requests. During the filming of the opening scenes, Liev Schreiber, who plays Cotton Weary, requested that he take off his jacket when he gets home. Why? Because Schreiber had been working out and wanted to show off his hot new bod.

Scott Foley’s Debut

It may come as a surprise, but Scream 3 is Scott Foley’s film debut. Still he might feel so familiar. Before he played murderous Stab director Roman Bridger, he had quite the career in television. He’d already starred in Dawson’s Creek and Felicity. That explains why this “newcomer” seemed so at-home on-screen.

Sidney’s Tribute To Her Ex

Did you spot the necklace that Sydney wears throughout the film? If you get a close look, you’ll see it’s the Greek letters for her former boyfriend Derek’s fraternity. He was killed in Scream 2, so it’s a small and sweet reminder that she’s still dealing with his loss.

A Tour Through The Rebuilt Sets

Scream 3 sees Sidney visiting the set of Stab 3, a fictional film that goes back to the original Woodsboro murders. Because the sets from the first Scream had already been destroyed, they had to rebuild them from scratch in a sound studio. Rather than waste these great sets, Wes Craven decided on-the-fly to add a scene where Sid gets attacked on the set. You can’t waste a good opportunity like this! Ghostface follows her through the set of her childhood home and final party house in the same manner that he did in the original.

Real Pain Mimicking The Original Scream

If you know trivia about the original Scream, you might remember that when Neve Campbell attacked Skeet Ulrich with an umbrella, it missed the padding and hurt him in real life. The same accident happened again in Scream 3. This time, Campbell is meant to hit Scott Foley’s pads with an ice pick, but missed the pads entirely. Ouch! His scream in the scene was all too real.

Director Parallels

Scott Foley’s Roman Bridger is the director of in-film movie Stab 3. At one point, he complains that he had to make this movie in order to work on the romance that he really wanted. It turns out that’s a direct reference to real-life director Wes Craven. He wanted to film Music of the Heart (1999) but had to film Scream 3 first in order to do so.

A Mostly Bloodless Scream

The Scream franchise never really shied away from blood–until now. The studio requested that all the onscreen deaths be bloodless. Their reasoning was that the Columbine massacre had only just happened and it didn’t feel appropriate. Plus, they’d been getting complaints that the previous films were too bloody. (Hello, these are horror movies.) Wes Craven fought them, but in the end the final cut only had a minimal amount of the red stuff.

The Film Almost Had Two Killers

At this point, it’s tradition for a Scream movie to have two killers. The first had Billy and Stu, the second had Debbie and Mickey–even Scream 4 had a murderous duo. Scream 3 is the one film in the franchise so far that deviates from the rule. Although the killer turns out to be Roman Bridger, the script originally had Emily Mortimer’s Angelina Tyler as his partner in crime. In the end, they scrapped the idea and kept it a one-killer film.

Rewrites Upon Rewrites

The actors of Stab 3, the film within Scream 3, complain about all the rewrites that they’re being put through. This mirrored the real complaints on the film’s set. Ehren Kruger, who took over the script-writing from Kevin Williamson and promptly threw out the man’s outline, continued to write and rewrite whole scenes throughout filming so the cast never knew what was going on.

Wes Craven Found New Ways To Hide The Ending

There was a ton of controversy during the filming of Scream 2. They had all sorts of measures to prevent the killers from being leaked, like hard-to-copy script paper and not sharing the ending with the cast until the final days. Still, the script was regularly leaked, causing all sorts of problems including rewrites. Wes Craven did things a little differently for Scream 3. Instead of keeping it a secret, he filmed three different endings with three sets of killers. It was only until the movie was released that the world knew who the true villain was.

A Familiar Spooky Set

The final act of Scream 3 occurs at the big mansion of a Hollywood producer. If the epic house feels familiar, you might be recognizing it from another slasher flick: Halloween H2O: 20 Years Later. They used the same mansion as the fancy high school in the film.