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New Evil Dead Rise gets cast, director and starts filming next month

May 27th, 2021 by Marc Comments

The Evil Dead franchise may be forty years old but it’s showing no signs of outstaying its welcome anytime soon.

We’ve known for a while now that a new entry in the franchise is being developed without Ash Williams, the face of the franchise, Bruce Campbell and now we have some new details on what this movie will be.

Now, this isn’t the first time we’ve had an Evil Dead movie without Williams, with Fede Álvarez’s superb reboot/sequel in 2013 putting Jane Levy’s Mia front and centre and returning to the series’ gory, scary roots – however, the teased sequel never materialised and the franchise soon moved back to Ash Williams with the surprisingly gory and fun series Ash Vs Evil Dead.

However, now the franchise is set for a new direction once again and we’re excited to see what happens in the universe of the Deadites.

The Hole in the Ground director (and fellow Irishman) Lee Cronin is stepping up to make Evil Dead Rise with New Line with franchise creator Sam Raimi and Campbell both producing. The movie will film in New Zealand next month and will be released through HBO Max.

As we learned a while back,  Evil Dead Rise takes the undead action away from the cabin in the woods and into the city as two estranged sisters’ reunion is cut short when flesh-possessing demons thrust them into a battle for survival.

The sisters will be played by The Mist’s Alyssa Sutherland and Picnic at Hanging Rock’s Lily Sullivan.

Raimi said: “I’m thrilled to bring Evil Dead back to its original home at New Line 40 years after the release of the first film. The company’s history as pioneers of horror speaks for itself.

Campbell said of the franchise’s new direction: “At its core, Evil Dead is about ordinary people overcoming extraordinarily terrifying situations… I can’t wait for Alyssa and Lily to fill the blood-soaked shoes of those who have come before them and carry on that tradition.”

“The Evil Dead movies filled my brain with terror and awe when I first saw them at 9 years old,” Cronin said. “I am excited and humbled to be resurrecting the most iconic of evil forces for both the fans and a whole new generation.”

While there will undoubtedly be some who worry that the franchise is going down the now familiar female reboot road, I’d point out that the franchise has history of Strong women (here) and, as such, look forward to what’s coming… I just hope it’s more Evil Dead 2013 and less Ghostbusters 2016.

What say you all? Apart from ‘groovy’?

Source: Variety

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….