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‘Scream’: ‘Vida’ & ‘In The Heights’ Star Melissa Barrera Set For Key Role In Spyglass & Paramount Slasher Movie Relaunch

Andreas Wiseman
·3 min read

EXCLUSIVE: In The Heights and Vida star Melissa Barrera has booked a key role in Scream 5, we can reveal, becoming the first new cast member to be announced for the anticipated Spyglass Media and Paramount relaunch.

As we revealed last week, Friends alum and legacy cast member Courteney Cox will be reprising her role in the franchise as dogged reporter Gale Weathers alongside David Arquette who is coming back as Dewey Riley. Neve Campbell, who portrayed Sidney Prescott in the slasher pic, told press in May that she was in talks to join the movie.

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Cameras are due to roll in Wilmington, North Carolina, this fall and the project is due to wrap by year’s end. Additional casting is underway on the ensemble horror.

Rising Mexican actress Barrera recently co-starred in Warner Brothers’ movie adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway musical hit In The Heights, directed by Crazy Rich Asians filmmaker Jon M. Chu. That film is due for release next year. The actress and singer plays Lyn in STARZ’s well received drama series Vida, which just wrapped its third and final season, and this fall she will star as the title character in movie Carmen, the modern-day reimagining of the classic opera. The movie will mark the feature debut of Black Swan choreographer Benjamin Millepied and will feature music from composer Nicholas Britell (Moonlight) and Grammy winner Julieta Venegas.

Scream 5 is being directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett of the filmmaking group Radio Silence (Ready or Not, V/H/S) from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt (Murder Mystery, Amazing Spider-Man) and Guy Busick (Ready or Not, Castle Rock).

Creator Kevin Williamson and the third member of the Radio Silence trio, Chad Villella, are executive producing with Project X Entertainment’s Vanderbilt, Paul Neinstein and William Sherak serving as producers.

The Scream franchise, through four movies that began in 1996, has grossed more than $600M at the global box office. The late Wes Craven directed all four movies. Williamson wrote the original film as well as Scream 2 and Scream 4.

Spyglass launched last year as a partnership between Gary Barber and Lantern Entertainment, which acquired the TWC assets and library. The company has strategic investment backing from Warner Bros, Italy’s Eagle Pictures, and major cinema chain Cineworld Group.

Barrera is repped by WME, Bridge Works Entertainment and Wolf Kasteler PR.

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