‘Evil Dead’ Will Rise Again

Bruce Campbell
Bruce Campbell at the ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ premiere (Photo by Richard Chavez © Showbiz Junkies)

The Dead are coming back to life with a new Evil Dead remake from the men who brought us the first film: Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, and Bruce Campbell (who played ‘Ash’ in the original franchise). The Evil Dead is being reborn at Ghost House Pictures.

Raimi and Tapert were such instant fans of Fede Alvarez’s short film Panic Attack that they set up a blind deal with the filmmaker and through that process have attached Fede Alvarez to write and direct the film. Alvarez wrote the script with Rodo Sayagues. Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody is currently doing revisions on the draft. Ghost House is committed to renewing the franchise and has the film on the fast track.

Raimi, Tapert, and Campbell will serve as producers. Ghost House Pictures partners Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane will executive produce. Nicole Brown and J.R. Young will oversee the project for Ghost House. Lionsgate will handle international sales of the film.

The three producing partners commented, “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 thirty years ago as well as Fede bringing a fresh eye to the film’s original elements.”

Raimi wrote, directed and, along with Tapert and Campbell, produced the original horror classic The Evil Dead that tells the story of five twenty-something friends who become holed up in a remote cabin where they discover a Book Of The Dead. An archaeologist’s tape recording reveals that the ancient text was discovered among the Khandarian ruins of a Sumerian civilization. Playing the taped incantations, the youths unwittingly summon up dormant demons living in the nearby woods, which possess the youngsters in succession until only one is left intact to fight for survival.

The Evil Dead spawned a franchise with the equally successful installments Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness.