I'm relieved that Kevin Williamson is back in our lives, even tangentially, thanks to Scream 4 (or Scre4m, if you prefer your horror cinema Ke$hified). But while he's giving fine, diplomatic interviews in 2011, the Kevin Williamson of 1999 who confessed his insecurities to Movieline magazine might be even more entertaining. Did his predictions about teen slashers and Neve Campbell (not to mention the cast of Dawson's Creek) manifest? Let's visit the Movieline vault and see.
In 1999, the world was more than a year away from the release of Scream 3. You'll be delighted to know that Williamson anticipated a downturn for teen slashers and his relationship with Bob Weinstein.
"The whole horror movie thing is over," Williamson asserts. "The best we can hope is that this present cycle will run its course. Let them all die out and, a year from now, let's hope the curiosity factor about seeing the third part of the Scream trilogy will let it make some money. It's a departure from the first two. Yes, it's a horror movie, yes, people will die, but there's a whole new angle, which I can't reveal because Bob Weinstein would have a fit."
Williamson also sang Neve Campbell's praises, but even though he correctly identified her grown-up attitude towards moviemaking, he failed to guess that she'd be so choosy about future roles.
Neve Campbell, heroine of both Scream? "There's something very 'Old Hollywood' about her. Out of all these kids, she has a maturity about her so that she'll move with ease into adult roles."
His estimates for Scream 2's Sarah Michelle Gellar and Dawson's Creek stars James Van Der Beek, Joshua Jackson, and Katie Holmes are even more scintillating.
I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream 2's Sarah Michelle Gellar? "A live wire who's very savvy about the business, who knows when to and when not to smile, and who's got the talent to back that up. And, like Love [Hewitt], she can nail it in one take."
James Van Der Beek, his Dawson's Creek alter ego? "After 20 seasons on Dawson's, after having a huge acting career, he'll be a director. I see it coming already."
The same show's Joshua Jackson? "He'll be a huge little deal in movies, then he'll come and go, then reemerge and be Tom Hanks. He's talented, smart. I love him."
Williamson saves his biggest raves for Dawson's Creek beauty Katie Holmes -- whom he chose to star in Killing Mrs. Tingle despite pressure from the studio to hire someone more along the lines of, say, Alicia Silverstone -- and with whom he has a close relationship. "She's like my kid sister -- we're so close, she went with me when I was house shopping." About her career, he says without hesitation, "There's an Oscar in Katie's future. She's going to become Michelle Pfeiffer. Like Pfeiffer or Jodie Foster, she's an incredible beauty the camera just eats up. But beyond that, she has amazing raw talent that's growing by leaps and bounds. A very smart, very practical girl from Ohio who watches the dock tick and thinks, 'I'd better learn how to act real quick.'"
"Come and go" Joshua Jackson and James Van Der Beek did! Fringe and (this makes two references in one article) Ke$ha videos thankfully reignited both careers. Of course, the one Creeker Williamson failed to single out in the piece, Michelle Williams, has two Oscar nominations, and seems well on her way to more peer-based plaudits. As for Katie Holmes? There wasn't as Oscar in her future so much as... the open arms of ReelzChannel.
ยท Fear and Trembling: Kevin Williamson [Movieline Vault]