The remake of Evil Dead hasn’t opened yet, but it premiered at SXSW on Friday, garnering a mixed but more positive reaction than many had expected. At the post screening Q&A, director Fede Alvarez confirmed (via THR) that Sony Pictures is so happy with the movie that a screenplay for Evil Dead 2 is already in the works, with the hope of it becoming a trilogy.
The reviews coming out of SXSW have suggested the remake may be the goriest movie ever released by a major studio, so if you like blood and guts, you’re in for a treat.
However if your wondering what this means for the mooted fourth Sam Raimi Evil Dead movie, Bruce Campbell and producer Robert Tapert have been talking about it, and suggesting that if it is made, it will be a direct sequel to the final film, 1993’s Army Of Darkness.
Raimi said last week that he would start writing Evil Dead 4 this summer with his brother Ivan. However he later said he’d been pressured into saying that by fans, although others involved have said it is indeed in the works. It was Rob Tapert who said the fourth Raimi Evil Dead is actually going to be Army of Darkness 2 (via ComingSoon). He explains. “That would be Army of Darkness 2. Everybody calls it Evil Dead 4, but Army Of Darkness wasn’t called Evil Dead anywhere except by the fans.”
That also helps explain how they could continue the franchise even at the same time as the original is being turned into a remake trilogy.
Bruce Campbell added to the rumours saying, “Sam threatens this every six months. I’ve heard this a thousand times, because in the back of his mind, he never wants to let go, because he loved making these movies. We all loved making them together. They were a nightmare to make, very difficult, but they lasted the test of time, so he’s not going to let that go, and I’m never going to say ‘no.’ It’ll be me and a walker fighting some other old guy. But that’s what he does and who knows? It may happen.”
We’ll just have to wait and see if it ever does happen.