Exclusive: Shots from the 'Scream 4' set

Posted Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 10:14 AM Central
Last updated Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 10:20 AM Central

by John Couture

If there's one set of horror movies that I have a soft spot in my heart for, it's the Scream series. I don't know if it was the way they embraced and then changed the "rules" of horror movies or if it was the tongue-in-cheek nature of the movies, but I bought into them hook, line and sinker.

So you knew when they gave a greenlight to a fourth movie that I would be all over it. And when I made my Summer pilgrimage to the homeland (aka Detroit) and heard that Scream 4 was filming in town, I had to find it.

Detroit (and to a lesser extent, the rest of Michigan) has been hit hard by the collapse of the economy and the subsequent fall of the automobile industry. But, a small silver lining has been an uptick in the cottage industry of film production in the state.

Thanks to some rather lucrative tax breaks, Detroit is literally becoming the Hollywood of the Midwest. This weekend alone there are no fewer than six feature films shooting in the Detroit metropolitan area including A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas, LOL, Real Steel and of course, Scream 4.

On Friday night, after checking out my new favorite site for listing filming locations (On Location Vacations, I learned that Scream 4 was prepping for a night shoot at a hospital in downtown Detroit. Since we were planning on heading into the general area to hit a bar anyhow, I figured a little detour couldn't hurt.

What I found was the staging area for the film and some neat shots of some prop news vans that will most likely feature into the movie, including Gale Weathers's (aka Courteney Cox-Arquette) van? I do know that the mythical Woodsboro from the films is located in Northern California and last I checked Detroit is no where near the "Bay Area."

The staging area was set in a fenced in parking lot and guarded by a bored security guard. The night's festivities were just getting started as we noticed more security guards arriving on scene and craft services setting up, so sadly there are no shots of the stars, but I figure you might enjoy the pics nonetheless.

As to the scene being shot, my pure speculation given that they are filming at a hospital and the presence of news vans is that the scene may be the final scene where the "survivors" emerge from the hospital to a throng of reporters. Or, I suppose it could be a scene from the first act when a survivor from Ghostface is able to confirm that the murderer is indeed back on the prowl.

Do you have any speculation on the scene they are filming? Enjoy the pics!