Marlon Wayans says 'Scary Movie' franchise was 'snatched' from his family by 'evil' Weinstein brothers
The greatest horror of Scary Movie happened off screen, according to Marlon Wayans.
The 48-year-old actor, comedian and filmmaker described the real reason why his and his brothers' involvement in the comedic horror franchise dwindled after Scary Movie 2 while visiting Kevin Hart's Comedy Gold Minds podcast.
"I remember when the Scary Movie—when you guys made the decision to not do it," Hart said. "You didn't want to go back, and it was a thing!"
Wayans interjected:
"That's what they told y'all. ... N—a—hey, listen. I don't gotta say s—t. One of them n—as is in jail right now. For what? Rape! They did it in their business. They were evil as f—k! We didn't walk away from a franchise. They didn't want to make our deal, and they snatched it. It was like—Weinsteins did really terrible, like, rape and pillage villagers type of business. [...]"We never walked away from our franchise that we created. It was taken and, us being the creatives that we are, was like, 'A'ight, bet. F—k you. Now watch what I create.' ... We probably should sue for hundreds of millions of dollars because they probably owe us a s—t load of money, and maybe one day we will. But we didn't walk away from our franchise. Them n—as took it. They were f—king f—ked up."
The original Scary Movie was co-written by Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans and four others, and Keenen Ivory Wayans served as the director. Marlon and Shawn also starred as Shorty and Ray respectively. The film hit theaters in July 2000 and made $278 million at the box office (h/t E!).
The story was more or less the same for Scary Movie 2—Marlon and Shawn writing, Keenen Ivory directing, and hitting theaters July 4, 2001, to the tune of $141.2 million.
However, the third (2003) and fourth (2006) installments brought in David Zucker. Malcolm D. Lee directed Scary Movie V (2013). Marlon and Shawn were only credited with small "characters" writing credits, and the Wayans no longer held onscreen roles. The franchise was distributed and produced by Dimension Films, an extension of Miramax Films and The Weinstein Company.
Harvey Weinstein was first brought under fire when The New York Times published decades of sexual harassment allegations against him in October 2017. He was immediately fired from The Weinstein Company, and more allegations continued to surface.
Weinstein was charged with first- and third-degree rape as well as committing a sexual act in the first degree in May 2018. Ultimately, after several more accusations and lawsuits, he was sentenced to 23 years in prison—20 years for criminal sexual act and three years for rape—in March 2020.
Listen to Wayans' full episode of Comedy Gold Minds below. The Scary Movie discussion begins around the 15-minute mark.
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