Dimension greenlights Wayans-free ''Scary Movie 3''

Is a feud brewing between the Wayans family and Miramax’s Dimension division, which released their two ”Scary Movie” spoofs? On Wednesday, brothers Keenen Ivory, Marlon, and Shawn Wayans decided to take their parodic talents over to Sony-based Revolution Studios for a two-picture deal. According to Variety, other studios bidding for the Wayans’ services were Universal, Fox, and DreamWorks — but not Dimension. The next day, Variety reports, Dimension announced that it was going ahead with a third ”Scary Movie,” without any of the brothers on board, and that it hopes to get the movie into the multiplex by next fall, before the new Wayans comedies can open. Dimension chairman Bob Weinstein says the studio is even ”looking into the legal impact, if any, of their actions on our rights.”

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the full title of the third movie is ”Scary Movie 3: Episode I — Lord of the Brooms.” (Apparently, the ”Star Wars,” ”Lord of the Rings,” and ”Harry Potter” franchises have been added to the list of the parody’s targets.) The screenplay is credited to Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, who co-wrote 2000’s ”Scary Movie” with the Wayans siblings but were not involved in 2001’s ”Scary Movie 2.” Directing will be David Zucker, the spoofmeister who directed the ”Airplane!” and ”Naked Gun” movies. Zucker already has a relationship with Dimension, having directed Ashton Kutcher and Tara Reid in next February’s ”The Guest.” Variety reports that Anna Faris, the Neve Campbell-ish heroine of the first two films, will return for the third.

The first two ”Scary Movie” installments were low-budget quickies that grossed a combined $228 million in the U.S. The third movie will also be made quickly and cheaply, Weinstein tells Variety. ”The laughs will be cheap, and so will the budget,” he says.

The first movie in the Wayans family’s Revolution deal will also be a sci-fi/fantasy spoof, parodying such alien-invasion adventures as ”Signs” and ”Independence Day,” Variety reports. The second will be a ”Big Momma’s House”-type comedy about sleuths who go undercover in drag to solve a mystery in the Hamptons, the posh summer resort community on New York’s Long Island. The three brothers will write the films, Keenen will direct, and Marlon and Shawn will star.