Scream’s Stab Movies

Stab 3: Hollywood Horror

2001

Status: Released
Released: 2001 or 2006 inside the Scream universe
Studio: Sunrise Studios
Seen in: Referenced in Scream 4, book seen in Scream 6
Distributor: Sunrise Studios

None known. The True Story of Stab 3 is the subtitle on Gale's book, not a line from the film.

Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Written by: Will Kennison
Produced by: Don Crosby, Bill Birch, Floyd Malone, Fred Rifkin
Music by: Marco Beltrami
Based on: Hollywood Horror by Gale Weathers

The Film

Sidney Prescott is still carrying the trauma of having her friends murdered and is working as a crisis counselor in Northern California. A killer starts murdering the actors on the Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro production, in the same order their characters die in the script. Three different screenplays are in circulation, so nobody can work out who is next. Dewey Riley is back, working for the studio on the production.

Hollywood Horror is the Stab 3 that Sunrise Studios actually released after Return to Woodsboro fell apart. It is based on Gale Weathers' book Hollywood Horror, her account of the murders on that production, and it closes the original trilogy built on Sidney Prescott's life.

No footage has been shown, so the story can only be pieced together from Gale's book and the real events it covers. In Scream 3, Sidney has gone into hiding after losing almost everyone close to her and works as a crisis counselor over the phone from a secluded home. Scream 4 adds one detail about the movie itself: in the Stab 3 version, Dewey and Gale have been married for ten years.

Down in Los Angeles, a horror movie based on their lives is being made. A killer gets hold of the script and starts murdering the cast in the same order their characters die on the page. Nobody can tell who is next, because three different screenplays with three different endings are floating around.

Sidney comes out of hiding, and she, Dewey and Gale dig into her mother Maureen's past as a Hollywood actress. Along the way the real killer murders Cotton Weary, bodyguard Steven Stone, producer John Milton and most of the Return to Woodsboro cast, so the film has to cast actors to play the dead actors. The director, Roman Bridger, turns out to be Sidney's half-brother and the killer.

The Stab 3 artwork seen in Scream 4 bills a big cast: Rutger Hauer, Elizabeth Banks, Balthazar Getty, Charlize Theron, Jennifer Aniston and Will Smith. Scream (2022) suggests the Stab version has two killers, while the real case had only Roman. The Scream Wiki reads this as a nod to the dropped plan for Angelina Tyler to be his accomplice. Unconfirmed.

Release & Reception

Released: 2001 or 2006 inside the Scream universe (sources disagree; see trivia)

In Scream 4, Jenny Randall says the first three Stab movies were based on Sidney's real story and the series started making things up after that.

Rebecca Walters tells Gale in Scream 4 that Gale and Dewey's ten-year marriage matches their characters in Stab 3.

Deleted Scenes & Trivia

Release year: the Fandom history of the series says 2001. The Scream Wiki argues for 2006, working from Rebecca Walters' line about ten years of marriage.
This is the first released Stab known to recast a lead, since Jennifer Jolie had been murdered.
The Sunrise Studios website of 2000 promised Stab 3 was coming to theaters. That referred to Return to Woodsboro before it was cancelled.
Every credited actor from Return to Woodsboro died during the Hollywood murders, so the new film needed a whole new cast.
Unconfirmed, fan wiki only: the Scream Wiki gives a 116-minute runtime and a box office of $161,834,276. That box office figure is almost the same as the real Scream 3's worldwide gross.
Marco Beltrami is the only known person to have worked on both the real Scream franchise and its fictional movie-within-a-movie counterpart.
Dante Paltrow, a fictional composer, scored the first two Stab films before Beltrami took over here.
A poster seen in Scream 4 suggests the film had an enormous supporting cast.

Confirmed on screen

This is the replacement film Sunrise Studios made after Return to Woodsboro collapsed, built out of the real events surrounding that failed production.
Gale Weathers’ book Hollywood Horror: The True Story of Stab 3 is visible among her published works in the shrine in Scream 6.
Scream 4 establishes that the first three Stab films are all based on Sidney Prescott, which places this film as the third and final part of that original trilogy.

Unofficial

A running time of 116 minutes and a worldwide box office figure. The box office number is certainly made up.
A release year of 2006 instead of 2001.
The claim that the film has two killers.

Connections

Adapts the Hollywood Ghost Face murders from Scream 3.
Replaces the unfinished Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro. Preceded in release by Stab 2.
Scream 4: Stab 3 artwork at the Cinema Club, Hollywood Horror book on Gale's desk, Rebecca Walters' line about the ten-year marriage.
Scream VI: poster outside the shrine, book inside it.
Followed by Stab 4, the first of the Stab films not based on real events.

Sources

Cast & Production

Cast

Elizabeth Banks

Gale Weathers

Named on the Stab 3 artwork seen in Scream 4. ScreenRant's Stab cast guide says she took over as Gale after Jennifer Jolie's murder.

Rutger Hauer

Unknown

Named on the Stab 3 artwork seen in Scream 4 (Fandom history of the series; ScreenRant). Role never stated.

Balthazar Getty

Unknown

Named on the Stab 3 artwork seen in Scream 4 (Fandom history of the series; ScreenRant). Role never stated.

Charlize Theron

Unknown

Named on the Stab 3 artwork seen in Scream 4, per the Fandom history of the series. Role never stated.

Jennifer Aniston

Unknown

Named on the Stab 3 artwork seen in Scream 4, per the Fandom history of the series. Role never stated.

Will Smith

Unknown

Named on the Stab 3 artwork seen in Scream 4, per the Fandom history of the series. Role never stated.

Tori Spelling

Sidney Prescott

Listed as returning by ScreenRant's Stab cast guide and as a possible return by the Scream Wiki. Not shown in any film.

David Schwimmer

Dewey Riley

Listed as returning by ScreenRant's Stab cast guide and as a possible return by the Scream Wiki. Not shown in any film.

Craig Bierko

Cotton Weary

Listed in the Scream Wiki's cast box. Unconfirmed.

Crew

Robert Rodriguez

Director. The Fandom history of the series says he came back after sitting out Return to Woodsboro.

Will Kennison

Screenwriter (Scream Wiki)

Gale Weathers

Author of the source book Hollywood Horror

Marco Beltrami

Composer (Stab posters made for Scream VI and shown at the Scream VI Experience, per the Fandom history of the series)

Don Crosby

Producer (Scream Wiki only; unconfirmed)

Bill Birch

Producer (Scream Wiki only; unconfirmed)

Floyd Malone

Producer (Scream Wiki only; unconfirmed)

Fred Rifkin

Producer (Scream Wiki only; unconfirmed)

Production

After Roman Bridger's killing spree ended Return to Woodsboro, Gale Weathers wrote Hollywood Horror: The True Story of Stab 3, and Sunrise Studios adapted it. Nobody from the Return to Woodsboro cast survived, so the film needed new actors, including someone to play the late Jennifer Jolie.

John Milton, the producer behind the first two films, had been murdered, so this was the first Stab made without him. The Fandom history of the series says Sunrise took a couple of years off out of respect for the victims before making a new Stab 3, and that Robert Rodriguez came back to direct.

SunriseSucks.com, the fake whistle-blower site made for Scream 3, promotes a book called Stabbed In The Back: The Real Sunrise Story that promises the whole history of Milton and Fred Rifkin. The Scream Wiki lists Stabbed In The Back among Gale's books in the Scream VI shrine.

According to the Fandom history of the series, the official Stab posters made for Scream VI and shown at the Scream VI Experience in Los Angeles credit Marco Beltrami with the music for Stab 3. Dante Paltrow is credited on the first two films.

Props and costumes

Stab 3 artwork is seen in Scream 4. The Fandom history calls it a poster, and the Scream Wiki places the cover at the Cinema Club. It bills Rutger Hauer, Elizabeth Banks, Balthazar Getty, Charlize Theron, Jennifer Aniston and Will Smith.

A Stab 3 poster hangs in the theater hallway outside the shrine in Scream VI.

Gale's book Hollywood Horror appears on her desk and at the bookstore in Scream 4, and in the Scream VI shrine, according to the Scream Wiki.

Killers & Deaths

Roman Bridger

Motive: Adapted from the real case, where the Stab 3 director took revenge on his half-sister Sidney Prescott after their mother Maureen turned him away.
Death: Not shown. In real life he was shot in the head by Dewey Riley.

Possible second killer

Death: Unknown. Suggested only by dialogue in Scream (2022), per the Scream Wiki.

Music & Home Media

Marco Beltrami is credited on the Stab 3 poster made for Scream VI. Beltrami scored the real Scream films, and the Fandom history of the series points out that this makes him the only person known to work on both the real franchise and the fictional one.