EVIL DEAD Remake is Alive and Well

There has been a lot of speculation about the future of the "Evil Dead" franchise. The third and last of Sam Raimi's horror adventure was released almost 20 years ago, in 1993 and since then the series has lost its momentum despite fans still keeping their hopes up. As time went by, Bruce Campbell grew older and Sam Raimi went to work on the "Spiderman" franchise, it became fairly obvious there was no point in making a sequel anymore. Fans were no doubt worried and even I was a little disappointed about the whole situation. Eventually, Sam Raimi and co. decided on a remake, one that would hopefully reboot the franchise and spawn another trilogy. Read on to see what the future holds for the new "Evil Dead".

The news first came via Twitter, about a week ago, when Campbell himself announced that the project is back on track and that it will be "scary as hell". It damn well should be, after 20 years. Then, reports on the Internet suggested that editor Bob Murawski, who worked on the third installment, "Army of Darkness", went down to Detroit to work on the project, described as being a "small indie thing like the first two".

Although many hoped that, perhaps, Sam Raimi would go back to his roots and direct this remake, it was quickly announced that the movie will be directed by new-comer Fede Alvarez, whose resume is mostly made up of short movies that made quite an impression in the festival circuit. So much so, that Hollywood picked up on his talent. You can watch one of his shorts below, an apocalyptic display of style called "Panick Attack!", which Sam Raimi himself wants to produce as a feature-length flick. 



The script will be written by Sam Raimi, Fede Alvarez and Rodolfo Sayaguez, with rewrites assigned to  Diablo Cody, who won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for "Juno", penned the script for "Jennifer's Body" and created the TV series "United States of Tara". Here's what producers Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Bruce Campbell had to say about the franchise's fresh start :

"We are committed to making this movie and are inspired by the enduring popularity and enthusiasm for the Evil Dead series. We can’t wait to scare a new generation of moviegoers using filmmaking techniques that were not available to us 30 years ago as well as Fede bringing a fresh eye to the film’s original elements."

The talent involved is unquestionable and I'm sure they'll deliver. It remains to be seen if it will be enough to please the fans, who have been waiting 20 years for another "Evil Dead" movie. There's little margin for error. Also, I'm very curious to see who will they get to play the protagonist and whether or not they're going to think up of a different kind of character, especially considering that Bruce Campbell's own Ash is something of an iconic figure. The movie is set for a 2013 release date, which has yet to be decided.

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