Evil Dead Remake Starts Shooting in New Zealand; Evil Dead 4 in the Works?
Posted 05.04.12 by Ryan
Depending on your loyalty to 1981's The Evil Dead, this could be interpreted as good or bad news. Principal photography has been announced for the the upcoming remake from director Fede Alvarez.
"We found a brilliant artist in Fede Alvarez. As a director, he understands what makes a story work and how to put the pieces together," said Sam Raimi, who wrote and directed the original and is producing the remake along with The Evil Dead actor Bruce Campbell and producer Robert Tapert. "I'm really excited to see this story, that I care deeply about, retold by such a fine storyteller."
Like the original, the Evil Dead remake will follow five friends who travel to a remote cabin and accidentally summon demon spirits who possess the youngsters. Jane Levy (Suburgatory) will lead the cast as Mia, who heads to the cabin to detox from her substance abuse issues with her brother David (Shiloh Fernandez, Red Riding Hood), David's fiancée Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore, Burning Man), and friends Olivia (Jessica Lucas, CW's Melrose Place, Cloverfield) and Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci, Carriers). "This cast of burgeoning talent share the same spirit we had when creating the original," said Tapert. "The desire to deliver an unexpected and outrageously scary movie experience for the audience."
Written by Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues, with rewrites from Diablo Cody (Juno), the remake has been described as "a damn scary horror movie" by Campbell and "unbelieveably violent" by Cody. Nevertheless, many fans of the Evil Dead movies may yet need convincing, as many would have preferred a sequel to the third installment, 1992's Army of Darkness. They could get their wish, as a legal battle over a potential Evil Dead 4 has also begun.
THR reports that Renaissance Pictures, the production company formed by Raimi, Campbell, and Tapert in the early 1980s when they made the first Evil Dead, is suing Award Pictures, who is planning its own Evil Dead sequel. While you can read the finer legal points here, the essential disagreement is over the legitimacy of Renaissance's trademark to make a fourth Evil Dead. According to the report, Renaissance went to the US Trademark Office to register the mark for the remake, but Award Pictures filed an objection, claiming that a comment Raimi made in a 2000 book that he would never make an Evil Dead sequel was proof that the Evil Dead trademark was abandoned and that Award Pictures is now the sole owner the movie title. Yeesh.
With Sony backing the remake, we expect this little court matter to be resolved rather quickly, as Alvarez and company work to get the remake into movie theaters by its scheduled April 12, 2013, release date.