It’s something that has been discussed for the past several years – a remake of Sam Raimi’s classic horror film The Evil Dead. But the past 36 hours have seen a flurry of news culminating with the remake actually happening.
On Monday, Dread Central reported from an unnamed source that Raimi’s long-time editor Bob Murawski (Army Of Darkness, Spider-Man, Drag Me To Hell) was heading to Detroit to begin work on an Evil Dead film which was being described as “a small indie thing like the first two.”
This of course lead to loads of speculation. Was it the possible remake or was it a new installment in the series? But rather than just speculate, one fan on twitter took the question to the star of the original film, Bruce Campbell. The fan favorite cult actor had joined twitter last week and late Monday had this exchange –
Campbell should know. Not only was he the star of the original Evil Dead films, he served as a producer on them, so he would be in the loop on any potential remake.
The folks over at Bloody Disgusting added to the story yesterday by quoting their own source as saying that Federico Alvarez will be making his feature film debut by directing an Evil Dead remake. The film is being produced by Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures and Mandate and casting may be underway. It is being theorized that Raimi may want to get the film through production before moving off to direct Oz: The Great And Powerful for Disney later this year.
While going with an unknown director may seem like an odd choice to some, but Raimi himself was a first time feature director when he made the first Evil Dead so it doesn’t strike me as an out-of-left field decision. If you’re still unsure about Alvarez, check out this short film, Panic Attack, that the director made in 2009. Some may deride it as nothing more than a promo reel to show how he can handle special effects, but I think he does a good job at setting mood with it as well. Plus, he references a famous shot from Sergei Eisenstein’ Battleship Potemkin, so it appears that he has a bit more knowledge on the history of cinema than I would credit most other directors.
