Marlon Wayans Says the Weinsteins Pushed His Family Out of Scary Movie with Part 3

Right, let’s talk about the tangled saga behind the Scary Movie franchise – and how the Wayans family lost out on the series they basically built from the ground up. If you’re thinking, 'this sounds messier than the plot of the first film,' you’d be spot on. There are studio suits, alleged backstabbing, and even a reference to Sun Tzu, if you can believe it.

The Wayans Family: Kings of the Spoof Game

Back in the late '80s, Keenan Ivory Wayans dropped I’m Gonna Git You Sucka – a send-up of Blaxploitation films. Then, fast forward to the mid-’90s, you get Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, lampooning every urban drama you can think of from the decade. The real jackpot came with Scary Movie in 2000, which hilariously skewered the glut of teenage horror flicks clogging cinemas at the turn of the millennium. This thing made a ridiculous $278 million off just a $19 million budget. (Yes, that is genuinely bananas.)

Sequels and Studio Shenanigans

Scary Movie 2 didn’t quite reach the dizzy heights of the first, but pulling in $141 million from a $45 million budget, it was far from a flop. With those numbers, of course the studio wanted a third entry. This is where things get both ugly and strangely cinematic behind the scenes.

How the Franchise Slipped Away

• The Wayans family – understandably, given their track record – tried to negotiate a better deal for Scary Movie 3. Not exactly a wild ask in Hollywood, really.
• Instead of playing ball, the Weinstein brothers (back when they ran Miramax – the studio behind the franchise) apparently bypassed the Wayans entirely and moved ahead with the third film. According to Marlon Wayans, the family found out the news by a cold announcement on New Year’s Eve. In his words:
  'We didn’t even know. We got an announcement on New Year’s Eve that they were doing “Scary Movie 3.” The franchise was stripped from us. And we were just asking for our fair share.'
• It gets better (or worse, depending on your sense of schadenfreude). Wayans recalls his first brush with the Weinsteins wasn’t exactly promising. Right before shooting 1998’s Senseless, they sent him a copy of The Art of War by Sun Tzu. His reaction? He says he immediately clocked what they were about—'They rape and pillage villages. They were tyrants and had a dynasty.' He compared them to dictators who eventually fall, for what that’s worth.
• As if that weren’t enough, Wayans alleges the Weinsteins used a typical 'Hollywood accounting loophole' to avoid paying the Wayans family proper royalties from the franchise. And yes, this is reportedly the same financial disappearing trick Michael Moore called out when he didn’t see his cut from Fahrenheit 9/11.