Cotton Weary's Original Scream 2 Storyline Was WAY Worse The Leaked Script Explained

Cotton Weary (Liev Schrieber) went from a cameo in Scream to a main character in Scream 2, and I’m glad he did, because he’s an awesome cog in the movie. I’m also thankful the first Scream 2 script got leaked because his original part was much less effective. If Scream perfectly skewered the slasher genre while still being an effectively frightening horror movie on its own, Scream 2 does the same for horror movie sequels and manages to stand up well against the other films in the vaunted franchise.

Scream 2 takes place a few years after the first film, with Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) now a full-fledged college student. The Woodsboro massacre is now a joke at this point, with a metafictional film, Stab, made about the murders. However, Ghostface is back with someone new under the mask and many of the characters from the first film also return. This includes Cotton Weary, who eagle-eyed viewers will remember from his brief cameo in Scream when he’s on the news being wrongfully arrested for the murder of Maureen Prescott.

Cotton Weary Is A Fascinating Character In Scream 2

Weary Just Wants Some Kind Of Compensation For Being Wrongfully Accused

Cotton Weary is not who I expected to see reappear in Scream 2 after his small part in the first film, but by the end of the movie, I was delighted he was there. After Sidney wrongfully accused him of murdering her mother, Cotton set out to get something out of the suffering, ridicule, and hate he received from the public and media. His idea? Team up with Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) to get an exclusive interview with Sidney about the murders and Cotton’s relationship with Maureen, who he was having an affair with.

With anyone else, this would come off as a total slimeball move, but this is Liev Schreiber. Even when he’s being menacing, there’s still a charm you can’t help but love. Furthermore, he has a point. Cotton spent a year in jail, and all he’s basically asking for is a little recognition. It’s a really fascinating character, and one not often shown in horror movies. Usually, in horror films, the collateral damage from one film is forgotten about in the next unless it involves a major character.

Cotton was a huge victim of the events in Scream, so to see him looking for restitution in Scream 2 feels both sympathetic and realistic. Schreiber is also intimidating, so his presence alone makes it seem like he could be the killer in this film. That’s why I love it so much when he shows up at the end to save Sidney from Debbie Loomis (Nancy Loomis). Sure, he only shoots Debbie after Sidney promises she’ll do an interview with him, but I like to think that Cotton was just being cheeky, he was never going to let Sidney die.

It’s a great fist-pumping moment at the end of Scream 2 when Sidney tells the press to talk to Cotton, finally giving him the fame and closure he always wanted after the first movie. Searching for fame is a big theme in Scream and Cotton’s search is a way for him to cope with the trauma of being wrongfully imprisoned. The guy deserves a win, so it makes me so happy he gets to be a hero and a star at the same time.

The Scream 2 Script Was Changed After It Was Leaked On The Internet

Kevin Williamson Created Several “Dummy” Scripts

Those well-acquainted with the Scream franchise will know that Scream 2 was originally going to be much different. However, the script ended up leaking online, revealing the massive twist at the end of the movie. This has been debated over the years, with even screenwriter Kevin Williamson saying he purposefully leaked dummy scripts to fool people (via THR),

“There was such an interest in what was going on with Scream 2 that we wrote a dummy script and leaked it. And then we had a second dummy script that we also leaked, but that one didn’t really get out too far. And then the real one got out, but no one seemed to care by the time the real one got out.”

However, that story is a little different from the one Wes Craven told soon after the leaks happened where he expressed frustration with “fans” setting his film schedule back for rewrites (via DeadMeat),

“All you little f**kers out there that think that’s really cute, you f**king ruined our next three months.”

To add more confusion, a writer for SlashFilm, Willima Bibbiani, revealed that he was one of the people to leak the Scream 2 script in 1997, and the script he read was the one that had Cotton as a villain and included a much more dramatic finale (via SlashFilm). Bibbiani claims that the script he had was a dummy. So it’s a bit unclear which dummy scripts Williamson is referring to and with so many revisions to the scripts, many of which happened on set, it can be hard to parse what was meant to go in the film and was lost, and what wasn’t meant to at all.

Cotton Weary Had A Much Different (And Worse) Storyline In The Leaked Script

Weary Was Going To Be The Final Villain In The Leaked Script

The leaked script I’m interested in talking about is the one leaked in 1997 that supposedly caused the whole film to be rewritten, the one that some people claim was a dummy script. For my own sanity, because it’s a lot more fun, and because I enjoy hearing Wes Craven curse like a pirate, for this exercise, I’m going to consider that 1997 Scream 2 script the intended, real script. In that leaked script, Sidney’s boyfriend, Derek (Jerry O’Connell), is revealed to be the killer, and he is aided by Hallie (Elsie Neal), Sidney’s best friend.

Talk about having no murder-radar, Sidney. It would then be revealed that Nancy Loomis was the puppet master behind everything. Then, Nancy would be killed and Cotton would appear, revealing himself to also be working for Nancy, and he would attempt to kill Sidney as revenge for being falsely accused of murdering Sidney’s mother. They have a drawn out fight and the film ends with them both stabbing one another and falling to the ground from the rafters. Scream 2 ends with both characters slowly closing their eyes, their fates saved for Scream 3.

Hitchcock wept. You can read the entire script here for yourself: Scream.Fandom. Thank Craven we didn’t go with this version though. As much fun as it would be to have Liev Scheiber be a bigger part of the film, his villainy was telegraphed heavily throughout the movie, and it would have been a lame reveal for him to be a villain. A redemptive arc is just what Scream 2 needs. Cotton is a much more interesting and complex character as someone who is trying to deal with the unfairness of his past rather than another bloodthirsty man bent on revenge.

Liev Schreiber Having A Role In Scream 3 Was Good For The Franchise

Schreiber Ensured Scream Opening Sequences Remained Signature Scenes

All of this takes place well before Schreiber became the Liev Schreiber of the modern era. His biggest film up to that point was probably The Daytrippers. It’s quite the coup that Wes Craven and company managed to snag Schreiber for a cameo in the first film and for him to go on to become a massive star. By not killing him off (probably) like in the leaked script, it also meant that Cotton Weary could return for the beginning of Scream 3 in another of their signature opening sequences.

He gets to join the ranks of famous actors who get killed at the start of Scream movies, officially cementing him in the franchise and helping to elevate Scream into a classic horror series thanks to its successful casting of notable actors or unknowns who go on to big things. Kevin Williamson was writing and producing Dawson’s Creek at the same time as he was working on Scream 2 and flew back and forth to get them both done.

Williamson ended up having to step away for Scream 3 to work on Dawson’s Creek, and he was disappointed that Cotton Weary died in the opening, saying (via Collider),

“Yes, that wasn’t my wish.”

Respectfully disagree, Mr. Williamson, as great a script as Scream 2 is. Dying in the opening of a Scream film, is there a greater honor that a horror movie can bestow on an actor? Methinks not.

Scream 2 is the follow-up to Wes Craven’s meta film Scream and was released a year after the original. In the sequel, Sidney (Neve Campbell) moves to college but can’t escape her legacy as a survivor of Ghostface. Things become even more complicated for Sidney and her friends when a new Ghostface haunts her campus.

Release Date

December 12, 1997

Runtime

120minutes

Budget

$24 million