Marlon Wayans Says the Demise of Harvey Weinstein Was “God’s Revenge” After “Scary Movie” Franchise Robbery

Marlon Wayans Says the Demise of Harvey Weinstein Was “God’s Revenge” After Reflecting on “Scary Movie” Franchise Robbery

From the minds of the Wayans brothers, “Scary Movie” released to huge financial and commercial success back in 2000 – but less than four years later the creative trio was dropped from the franchise, with almost all of their ideas stolen by the Weinstein brothers and used for the third “Scary Movie,” ultimately leading to the franchise’s eventual downfall.  

Marlon, alongside his brothers Shawn and Keenan Ivory Wayans, wrote the script for the first movie (with Keenan Ivory as the film’s director) and sold the film rights to Miramax, the infamous production company formerly overseen by Harvey Weinstein. After the unprecedented success of the first two “Scary Movie” films, the Weinstein brothers decided to cut the Wayans out and continue the franchise without them, a move that ended up destroying the success of the once beloved horror-spoof film series. 

In an episode of Shannon Sharpe’s podcast “Club Shay Shay,” Marlon Wayans made a guest appearance where he spoke a bit about the situation, reflecting on how Harvey Weinstein “and his evil, ugly brother, Bob,” completely disrespected and went behind the backs of the Wayans brothers after the back-to-back hits of “Scary Movie” and its sequel. When it came time to pitch ideas for the third installment, the Wayans brothers sent a script over to Miramax, who made an offer for the same price as what they bought the original script for. Since the first two movies were so lucrative, the Wayans obviously asked for more money, and when the Weinsteins denied their proposition, they were forced to leave the project. Since Miramax technically owned the rights to the franchise, they continued on with “Scary Movie 3” – stealing all of the ideas that the Wayans pitched and copying the script almost word for word. The third film ended up being almost as successful as the first two (thanks to the Wayans’ script), and even ended up making more money than the second film. However, with the Wayans no longer tied to the franchise, its quality plummeted and the fourth and fifth films were released to minor success and largely negative reviews. In the podcast appearance, Marlon opened up about the karma that came back around for the Weinstein brothers following Harvey’s arrest and incarceration and Bob’s forced exit from the movie business, calling it “God’s revenge. Sometimes you aint gotta do nothing because God’s gonna do it all.”  

The most recent “Scary Movie” came out in 2013, and a new installment in the franchise was recently announced, with an unspecified release date expected to be sometime in 2025. Though it’s unlikely that the Wayans trio will return for the sixth volume of “Scary Movie,” it hasn’t stopped fans from hoping to see Marlon, Shawn and Keenan reprising their roles in the prized horror movie parody franchise – which would probably be the only way to revive the once popular film saga.