The Wayans family is back behind the 'Scary Movie' franchise with Miramax/Paramount deal

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L-R: Shawn, Marlon, Keenen and Damon Wayans in 2000 — David Keeler/Online USA

A month after Marlon Wayans decried how Harvey Weinstein “stole” the Scary Movie franchise from Keenen Ivory Wayans and his family, ABC Audio has confirmed the fam will be back with a new installment in the horror spoof films.

Weinstein’s former company Miramax has teamed up with distributor Paramount Pictures for the new project, which was first announced at the CinemaCon confab over the summer — but without the Wayans name attached at that point.

In an Instagram post, Marlon said, “WE’RE BACK!!! After nearly 20 years, the Wayans brothers are finally going to give the fans what they’ve been asking for… a return to the SCARY MOVIE franchise!”

He added, “We’re looking forward to having fun on the big screen again.”

In a statement, Miramax head Jonathan Glickman trumpeted, “We are thrilled to reunite Scary Movie with the Wayans brothers, the brilliant creators behind the beloved franchise. … we’re lucky to have Keenen, Marlon and Shawn‘s unique comedic vision bringing it to audiences around the world.”

In the announcement, Marlon, Shawn, and Keenan added in part,”This is a franchise we created more than 20 years ago. We remember people laughing in the aisles and hope to see that happen again.”

As reported back in September, Marlon talked to the Club Shay Shay podcast about the runaway success of the first film, which was directed by Keenan. 

After the “huge” first film, “We got a good deal for the second one,” but then Harvey and brother Bob Weinstein “took it from us.” He insisted they paid for it at the box office with subsequent attempts minus the famous family.

“You can’t do Wayans s*** without the Wayanses,” Marlon said. “We have 200 years of comedy between me, Shawn and Keenan. DamonKim. We have a lot of years of excellence of what we do.”

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