On the surface, “Scary Movie” may seem like just another summer sequel mining nostalgia for profit. But for Marlon Wayans, the film’s writer, producer and star, it represents the culmination of a quarter-century battle to wrest control of his family’s franchise back from its pillagers, as well as a promise he’d made to his dying father. “My father was in the hospital for a few weeks before he passed, and in one of our final conversations, he said, ‘I think you and your brothers should work together again,’” Wayans says.
The youngest of 10 siblings, Wayans had followed the trail blazed by older brothers Keenen and Damon out of a housing project in New York City and into Hollywood, first on their iconic sketch comedy show “In Living Color,” and then teaming with his brother Shawn on the sitcom “The Wayans Bros.” and with Keenen and Shawn on the hit films “Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood…,” “Scary Movie,” “Scary Movie 2,” “White Chicks” and “Little Man.”
But at the time of his father’s decline, Wayans and his brothers were at different stages of middle age, worked at different paces and wanted different things. It’s not so easy to get the Wayans brothers on the same page. “It’s hard for four Black men to stay together,” jokes Wayans. “Look at New Edition. And in this case, we’ve got four Bobby Browns.”
