Writer/director Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy is one of those franchises that fans always want more of. So far, the series has seen three films and a three-season spin-off TV series all starring Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams, the bumbling discount store clerk who finds himself single-handedly fighting off demonic forces intent on taking over the world. So even though he was at New York Comic Con this weekend to promote The Grudge, the latest project he has worked on as a producer, it was inevitable that he be asked what might be in store for the iconic series.
“I really want more, but Bruce Cambell has said ‘No,'” Raimi stated with a chuckle when asked as to when fans could expect to see Campbell back on screen fighting Deadites. “He’s done being kicked around by me and having me throw [fake] blood in his face. Forty years of those sticky Kayro-syrup shirts, every time he sits down waiting for the next shot then stands up he rips his skin off! He wants to work together be he just doesn’t want to play that role again right now.”
That doesn’t mean that the Evil Dead franchise is coming to a close. The series already saw one non-Campbell-starring film in 2013 with director Fede Alvarez calling the shots behind the camera. And Raimi disclosed that there could be another one in the future.
“But you know, we’re working on a new Evil Dead story,” he said. “It will be a new director and Bruce will be one of the producers, so he’ll be very much involved in it. Bruce will be in some sense, back with Evil Dead.”
And while it sounds as if there are concrete plans for the Evil Dead franchise moving forward, Raimi’s own return to behind the camera seems less certain. The last film he directed was 2013’s Oz The Great And Powerful.
“I love directing,” he states. “It’s hard though when you don’t have the best script. It’s much harder to make a bad movie then a good movie, so I’m waiting to find a script that really speaks to me, that brings something to elevate and that I think other people would love, but also something personal that I can really connect to and bring something to. As soon as I find that script I will be back in the director’s chair.”
And if he can’t find the script written by someone else that will get him back in the director’s chair, he is currently working on one of his own that will. “I’m writing a horror movie with my brother Ivan and I’m hoping to make that.”
For now, though, Raimi is content to content producing horror films and getting to watch what a new generation brings to the genre.
“I really love producing,” Raimi says. “I love watching visionary directors work with actors. I can eavesdrop and watch the dailies and think ‘Oh, that’s a really good idea she had’ or ‘Hey, I never would have thought to ask for that.’ So I learn a lot, it’s like I’m in school.”
