That ‘Evil Dead’ Remake Is Finally Happening, and Diablo Cody Is Lending a Hand

Tim Grierson
·Editor
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Since early this year, there's been talk of remaking writer-director Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead," the 1981 horror film that launched his and star Bruce Campbell's career. We never took that talk that seriously: It's not that the movie was too perfect to touch, but its sensibility (which carried over to two sequels) was so specific that it seemed weird to hand the reins over to anyone else. But Raimi and Campbell are indeed moving forward with a remake that they'll be producing. The folks they've found to steer the ship are more than a little surprising.

Perhaps fittingly, this new "Evil Dead" will be directed by a newbie, just like Raimi was when he made the original. His name is Fede Alvarez, and while he hasn't directed a feature before, he has made some shorts -- perhaps most notably "Panic Attack":

Granted, it's a cool, stylish short, but it doesn't have the impish spirit that made the "Evil Dead" series such a blast. Will Alvarez adapt to that lovable lo-fi tone, or will the remake be more high-tech? That's unclear, but what's interesting is that Diablo Cody has been brought on board to rewrite the script that Alvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues developed for the remake. We think that Cody's Oscar-winning screenplay for "Juno" is incredibly overrated, but it does have the snarky tone (along with her horror-comedy script "Jennifer's Body") that would seem to be more in keeping with the original franchise.

But as Entertainment Weekly notes, fans of the original trilogy will probably be OK with whomever is writing or directing the remake just as long as Bruce Campbell comes back. Which is almost definitely not going to happen. Those may be the toughest shoes to fill, for even though Campbell has never been a big Hollywood star, he's a huge star in the world of B-movies. Picking his replacement will be the surest indicator of what sort of audience the producers will be targeting for this remake. If it's Nathan Fillion, they're going straight cult crowd. If it's someone our parents have heard of, they actually think they've got a huge hit on their hands.

Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell gear up for 'Evil Dead' remake [Inside Movies/Entertainment Weekly]