Raimi greenlights Evil Dead remake

[savafan]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...=1&u=/eo/15373

By Josh Grossberg

Sam Raimi is resurrecting the Dead.

The Spider-Man helmer, who shot to fame scaring the bejesus out of moviegoers as the writer, director and producer of the 1981 cult horror classic The Evil Dead, has unveiled plans for a remake, Daily Variety reports.

Raimi will develop the new Dead installment through his Ghost House Pictures with an assist from the production company Senator International and the film's original producing partners, Rob Tapert and Bruce Campbell.

Campbell also played Ash, the beleaguered, badass hero chased by dark zombie forces in The Evil Dead and its sequels: 1987's equally gory Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn and 1992's Army of Darkness, which jettisoned the series' more stomach-churning chills in favor of slapstick.

The Evil Dead follows five friends who wind up at a cabin in the woods, where they find an archaeologist's taped translation of an ancient text known as the Necronomicon. When spoken aloud, the book unleashes an unspeakable evil from the forest that terrorizes the teens and turns them into flesh-eating demons. It's up to Ash to keep the dead dead.

The over-the-top violence, masterful camera work, and buckets of blood earned the low-budget feature a massive underground following and launched Raimi's career.

Because he's busy prepping Spider-Man 3, Raimi doesn't have plans to direct the new version.

"The Evil Dead is such a special film to Sam, Rob, Bruce and horror fans that we are going to take great care in renewing this franchise," Joe Drake, president of Senator International, told Variety. "By keeping its original formula intact and given audiences' appetite for horror, we expect that we'll have a real hit on our hands."

As part of the deal, Senator will put up the financing in exchange for worldwide rights to the picture and its executive producer, Nathan Kahane, will supervise production for the company. No word on whether Campbell will have a role in the update.

Meanwhile, Senator and Ghost House have also green-lighted a follow-up to The Grudge, now that the Sarah Michelle Gellar-starring horror flick has just crossed the $100 million mark in domestic box office after 27 days in release.

[Johnny Footstool]

A remake like this is purely mercenary. Most of the charm of the original "Evil Dead" movies can be attributed to their originality and quirkiness -- the camera angles, the unbelievably clever acting, the dialogue, the whole "see-what-you-can-do-with-wit-and-no-budget" attitude.

I'll stick to my DVDs.

[Steve4192]

I'm with you Johnny.

If Raimi is going to reopen the 'Evil Dead' franchise, I'd much rather see a sequel to Army of Darkness. Pick it up right where the final S-Mart sequence in AOD left off, just like ED II and AOD picked up right where the previous movie left off.

[Reds Fanatic]

I would like to see a sequel to the Evil Dead movies but I don't agree with a remake. You can't do Evil Dead movies without Bruce Campbell as Ash.

[zombie-a-go-go]

I thought they already remade Evil Dead... it was called Evil Dead II.

The original ending of AoD wasn't at S-Mart, btw. Raimi's original ending had Ash traveling too far into the future and waking up in a post-apocalyptic world.

[Steve4192]

The original ending of AoD wasn't at S-Mart, btw. Raimi's original ending had Ash traveling too far into the future and waking up in a post-apocalyptic world.

True, but 80% of the folks familiar with the franchise don't know that.

The S-Mart ending is what ran in theatres, is on the VHS version, and is used when it airs on TV. The only way to see the post apocalypse ending is to watch the special features of the DVD. Only the most hardcore of Evil Dead fans have seen the original ending.

If Raimi tried to do a remake using the apocalypse ending, nobody would know what the heck was going on.

[savafan]

I was kinda wondering if this was a way to gain interest for the rumored Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash movie that's been buzzed about.

I honestly don't think anyone but Campbell can play Ash.

[Rojo]

Please, please, please don't cast Jim Carey as Ash.

[M2]

I thought they already remade Evil Dead... it was called Evil Dead II.

And it will never be done better than that.

I went to a Bruce Campbell lecture recently, basically he blathered on about nothing, but he's still got the best chin in the business.

[Falls City Beer]

lecture

[Rojo]

And it will never be done better than that.

Agreed. The first was the scariest and the third was the goofiest, but "II" was the best blend of both.

[MrCinatit]

i just hope he doesn't "George Lucas" the whole thing up.