Updated!
After signing to the film just a month ago, Ellen Page has suddenly decided to drop out of writer/director Sam Raimi’s upcoming horror film Drag Me To Hell. While the official word is that the Juno star wasn’t happy with the latest draft of the script, co-written by Raimi and his frequent collaborator/brother Ivan, it is being speculated by Bloody Disgusting, who first reported the story, that the Academy Award nominee may just have a case of “Oscar cold feet.”
The film’s story revolves around a young girl who becomes the receipiant of a supernatural curse. Hmmmmm… That sounds vaguely like the major plot point of scripter Diablo Cody’s upcoming Jennifer’s Body. Could it be possible that Page saw some similarities and decided to do her Juno screenwriter a favor by backing out of the project?
UPDATE:
AintItCoolNews has posted a statement from Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures and the film’s distributor Mandate Pictures, shifting some of the blame for Page’s departure to the possibility of a Screen Actors Guild strike-
We were racing to start production so that we could accommodate Ellen’s schedule. But like so many other productions trying to start before the potential SAG strike date, this one needed more time and we had to push back the start of production.
Of course, “this one needed more time” could be their way of acknowledging, yet still downplaying the script is the thing that still needs work.
