When Scream 4 opened last spring, it was less a film than a referendum … and audiences voted no. The film grossed just $40 million, seemingly dooming the franchise. Fortunately for Ghostface and Sydney and Gale and Dewey and whoever else survived Scream 4 — I saw it opening night, and I can’t remember much other than Hayden Panettiere’s weird mumsy haircut — the franchise will survive, but not, for the moment, on the big screen: MTV is adapting it as a TV series.

In the year since Scream 4 stank up the box office, the pop-culture landscape has changed in a couple of respects could make this adaptation work. One is that MTV now has a track record for turning comedic films with supernatural elements into dramatic TV: Teen Wolf was a hit for the network last year (and premiered its second season last night). Another is the vogue for horror on TV, kicked off last year by American Horror Story and continuing with 666 Park Avenue, a drama series about a building whose tenants are possessed by demons, coming to ABC this fall.

This being MTV, we can probably expect the show’s serial killer to menace a cast of young, toothsome unknowns whose jugulars will spurt blood more telegenically than those of the movie’s now-elderly original stars. But it would be nice if the TV Scream could find things for Neve Campbell or David Arquette to do, because I am pretty sure they are available.