Showbiz History: Irene Dunne's Near-Record, Brittany Murphy's Untimely Death, Scream's Release

Today in showbiz history if you need something to celebrate with the world ending* and all...
*too dramatic? That's what it feels like lately, is all... 

1812 "Grimm's Fairy Tales" is published. They never stop influencing popular culture thereafter. 
1880 Broadway gets the nickname "The Great White Way" when it's first lit up by electricity
1892 Phileas Fog completes his trip 'round the globe in the novel Around the World in Eighty Days (later adapted to the screen)
1898 Irene Dunne, one of the greatest actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age was born on this day in Kentucky. She went on to five leading actress nominations (my favorite is The Awful Truth, 1937) without ever winning.

WHY THAT'S A BIG DEAL IN OSCAR HISTORY IS REVEALED AFTER THE JUMP...

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Goodbye to the Master of Horror, Wes Craven

Glenn Dunks, our resident "Scream" fanatic says goodbye to Wes Craven...

It’s not easy writing about the passing of Wes Craven. The director who was synonymous with the horror genre, and in particular the slasher franchises A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream, died on Sunday at age 76 from brain cancer after having battled ill health for several years and the news hit like a stab to the chest. His three-year illness likely explains why he hadn’t directed a film since 2011’s Scream 4, but it hadn’t stopped him from working altogether. He was completing a horror comic with Steve Niles called Coming of Rage, was developing a remake of his 1991 film The People Under the Stairs, and continued to executive produce MTV’s long-form TV adaptation of Scream.

There are few older celebrities whose death could hit as hard as Craven. He wasn’t just a great filmmaker, or a filmmaker with a lot of films that people liked. No, Wes Craven was quite literally a filmmaker that changed lives. A lot of ‘em – and that’s not an exaggeration. It’s genuinely hard to make even one, let alone two, generation-defining movies and it’s been wonderful to hear so many people, friends and strangers alike, share their stories on social media of how A Nightmare on Elm Street was the first horror film they ever saw and how it turned them into scare-seeking horror fiends. Or how Scream made them want to write about film. I’m one of those people, and there are a few extra Film Experience writers who share the same sentiments, but the numbers I've seen cite that seemingly inocuous 1996 slasher as a life inspiration has been surprising and actually comforting.

So when I went to write about his passing, I actually couldn’t. Not immediately, anyway. How do you describe the man who made the movies that defined our life? I hope he knew the effect his films had on people beyond simply scaring them.

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Scream coming to TV

Manuel here bringing you an in-depth look at Marvel's upcoming slate is what I would write if I wanted Nat to never invite me to write for TFE ever again. 

Not that we're straying far from Hollywood cash-grabs. At least MTV seems to be having fun with its latest Scream TV show pickup order. In true 2014-fashion, they broke the news... with emoji:

🔪.....💃 🔪....💃 🔪...💃 🔪..💃 🔪😭 💀 😱 310-461-4299 @mtvscream

— MTV (@MTV) October 28, 2014

As with all rebooted, retooled, revamped, repurposed, remade, and rejiggered properties, we'll hold judgment until the series airs next October (why they couldn't wait an extra year to have it coincide with Scream's 20th anniversary is beyond me, though yes, understandable). The big question is whether Ghostface will actually make it to air. You read that right, because of copyright issues, we may be getting a Scream TV show without Ghostface to go with our Gotham TV show without Batman and our S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show without any Avengers.

Which got me thinking, if I ran Hollywood, what famous property would I adapt to a TV show only to strip it off its main selling point to make it more budget-friendly? Herewith are my top three pitches:

- Le Moulin! Before there was Satine, there was... the Moulin Rouge. Set at the turn of the century, this highly stylized musical show follows the burlesque performers at the infamous Paris cabaret. In a world of decadence, can a can-can girl really have it all-all? 

- Lacuna, Inc. Before Clementine and Joel, there was a small start-up company called Lacuna, Inc. This mockumentary workplace comedy follows the shenanigans of Stan, Patrick and Mary, three twenty-something slackers whose dating life is put into relief every week by the grief-stricken people who visit their office to get their memories erased.

- Munchkinland. Before there was Dorothy, there were Glinda and Elphaba (or whichever name we can use without infringing copyright). But even before them, there was the mundane, if quirky life of the people of Munchkinland. Think Twin Peaks but without murder, or maybe there's a murder? There might be songs. I'm hoping we can do a crossover episode with Oompas the gritty reboot about slave labor in Wonka's factory.

Are you excited about Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson's property getting the MTV treatment?Are you hoping it'll be more Bates Motel than Once Upon a Time? What series would you pitch and hope to see on screen? 

Beauty vs Beast: The First Scream Cuts The Deepest

JA from MNPP here, with our second week of Final Girl themed "Beauty vs Beast"'s leading up to Ye Olde All Hallows - I didn't intend for this to also become a Wes-Craven-a-thon but whatcha gonna do, the man scribbled his name all over the genre in permanent marker, so here we are heading to the sleepy little hamlet of Woodsboro and the film that reinvigorated a slashed-to-ribbons genre for a new generation (my generation) - 1996's Scream. (And my apologies if this spoils a movie for you but I consider 18 years past-due on that sort of thing.) Let's meet our foes!

poll by twiigs.com

I don't know if putting the tag-team queer-vibe between Billy & Stu counts as plus or a minus for you -- it's a plus for me but I'm probably mentally disturbed so I'll leave just that to y'all to discuss in the comments. You have one week!

PREVIOUSLY Last week it was Wes Craven's 80s horror classic we tackled - in a battle between A Nightmare on Elm Street's dream duo we came down on the side of good (but just barely) - hall-pass-hating Nancy (Heather Langencamp) defeated the nightmare-man Freddy Krueger once again, but with just 52% of the vote. (I personally like to think some of those votes were for her awesomely drunk mother played by Ronee Blakely.) Said Rob:

"Nancy, aka Heather Langenkamp, is great! Not particularly a shining thespian but a charming and sincere one. Rooted for her all the way."

Team Top 10: Horror Films AFTER "The Exorcist"

It's Amir here, bringing you the second episode of this month's Team Top Ten. Last week we looked at the best horror films made before The Exorcist. This week it's time for everything that came after that seminal classic. Moreso than in the previous list, Team Experience members have agreed on canonical titles, barring an exception or two. This isn't to say there weren't any surprises. We decided against compiling a preliminary list of eligible titles before voting - precisely to avoid total agreement on our choices - and lo and behold, differences in opinion over what is considered horror lead to some major eyebrow-raisers; I'm already anticipating your comments about the absence of Jaws. But that's the fun in list-making.

Without further ado join us for the haunted house, serial killers, and terrifying isolation of...

The Top Ten Best
Post-Exorcist Horror Films

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