Caffeinated Clint
Even with a remake of “Evil Dead” headed to cinemas, producer Sam Raimi hasn’t given up on his dream to do a third sequel to the original film – with star Bruce Campbell reprising his role as Boomstick-yielding ‘Ash’.
BUT how does Raimi do an “Evil Dead 4” (a third sequel to his original horror classic) when there’s an “Evil Dead” remake on the way in the next couple of weeks? Won’t two franchises carrying the same name, spooling off at the same time, confuse people?
I’d have thought so, too. Until today.
And the solution is actually pretty logical. Very logical, actually. He doesn’t call the new film… “Evil Dead 4”. Instead, if Raimi does put pen to paper on the new film (and at this stage he’s only got an idea for one, he hasn’t actually started writing a script) it’ll be “Army of Darkness 2” that brothers Sam and Ivan Raimi put on the title page.
“Army of Darkness” was, of course, the second sequel to Raimi’s “Evil Dead”. The 1993 film transplanted ‘Ash’, the hero from the ‘Cabin’ (in the “Evil Dead” movies) to medieval times where he’s forced to battle all sorts of stop-motion monsters.
Instead of returning to the ‘Cabin’, and rather than following the template of not only the first two films in its series but also the remake, the fourth ‘Evil Dead’ will stay put in medieval times.
It’ll be… “Army of Darkness 2”.
(Meaning the “Evil Dead” remake can freely go off and have it’s fun, franchisey-wise, without having to worry about the original OG coming back to rain on its parade.)
“That would be ‘Army of Darkness 2,'” Producer Robert Tapert tells Coming Soon. “Everybody calls it ‘Evil Dead 4’ but ‘Army of Darkness’ wasn’t called ‘Evil Dead’ anywhere except by the fans.”
That’s true. Though it was a sequel to “Evil Dead 2”, “Army of Darkness” was released and marketed as a stand-alone picture (in most cases, anyway; you will find that some DVD copies carry the “Evil Dead” tag and I’m positive a couple of cinemas, back in the day, had it on the marquee as “Evil Dead 3”).
Still, Bruce Campbell, who would reprise ‘Ash’ for “Army of Darkness 2” if it goes ahead, isn’t convinced it’ll ever see the light of day. As blunt as ever, the legendary B-actor says the idea likely won’t get much further than it has.
“Sam threatens this every six months,” he told Coming Soon. “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.”
Raimi had said in recent interviews that he and brother Ivan Raimi may write, erm, “Army of Darkness 2” over their coming Summer break. Whether they actually do or not, is anyone’s guess?
Meantime, there’s a sequel to the remake on the way too. At last night’s screening of “Evil Dead” at SXSW, director Fede Alvarez and producer Bruce Campbell confirmed that an “Evil Dead 2” is already in the writing stages.
