Sam Raimi returns to horror!
12-20-07 | 07:25 AM
#1
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Sam Raimi returns to horror!
Variety reports that the morality tale about the unwitting recipient of a supernatural curse will go into production early next year. It will be financed through Ghost House, a joint venture Raimi and Rob Tapert formed several years ago with Mandate Pictures.
Raimi and Tapert will produce with Grant Curtis, and Josh Donen will exec produce with Mandate's Nathan Kahane and Joe Drake.
Tapert said the Raimis penned the script well before the formation of Ghost House. It was originally written under the title "The Curse" and completed right after the siblings collaborated on 1992's "Army of Darkness," which Sam Raimi directed.
"Sam calls it a 'spook-a-blast,' a wild ride with all the chills and spills that 'Evil Dead' delivered, without relying on the excessive violence of that film," Tapert said. "When one has done three very expensive movies, they get used to eating caviar. Sam will have to ponder what it means to come down from the mountaintop for a moment."
"Drag Me to Hell" is the first Raimi-directed project for Ghost House, which has done very well in the genre game with the Sarah Michelle Gellar starrer "The Grudge," "The Grudge 2," the Stephen T. Kay-directed "Boogeyman," the Oxide and Danny Pang-directed "The Messenger" and, most recently, the David Slade-helmed "30 Days of Night." Ghost House is prepping a remake of "Evil Dead," the 1981 horror film that was Raimi's first breakout hit as a director.
After "Drag Me to Hell," Raimi is expected to go right back up the mountaintop and take the helm of "The Hobbit" films for New Line and MGM now that Peter Jackson has made it clear he won't direct.
"The appeal to Sam on 'Drag Me to Hell' was returning to what he had once done and loved doing, which was entertaining a very specific group of fans and providing a roller coaster ride for them," Tapert said. "He doesn't have the enormous pressure here that goes with handling a hundreds of millions of dollars franchise."
Tapert said no distributor has yet been set for "Drag Me to Hell."
Raimi and Tapert will produce with Grant Curtis, and Josh Donen will exec produce with Mandate's Nathan Kahane and Joe Drake.
Tapert said the Raimis penned the script well before the formation of Ghost House. It was originally written under the title "The Curse" and completed right after the siblings collaborated on 1992's "Army of Darkness," which Sam Raimi directed.
"Sam calls it a 'spook-a-blast,' a wild ride with all the chills and spills that 'Evil Dead' delivered, without relying on the excessive violence of that film," Tapert said. "When one has done three very expensive movies, they get used to eating caviar. Sam will have to ponder what it means to come down from the mountaintop for a moment."
"Drag Me to Hell" is the first Raimi-directed project for Ghost House, which has done very well in the genre game with the Sarah Michelle Gellar starrer "The Grudge," "The Grudge 2," the Stephen T. Kay-directed "Boogeyman," the Oxide and Danny Pang-directed "The Messenger" and, most recently, the David Slade-helmed "30 Days of Night." Ghost House is prepping a remake of "Evil Dead," the 1981 horror film that was Raimi's first breakout hit as a director.
After "Drag Me to Hell," Raimi is expected to go right back up the mountaintop and take the helm of "The Hobbit" films for New Line and MGM now that Peter Jackson has made it clear he won't direct.
"The appeal to Sam on 'Drag Me to Hell' was returning to what he had once done and loved doing, which was entertaining a very specific group of fans and providing a roller coaster ride for them," Tapert said. "He doesn't have the enormous pressure here that goes with handling a hundreds of millions of dollars franchise."
Tapert said no distributor has yet been set for "Drag Me to Hell."
12-20-07 | 06:55 PM
#5
DVD Talk Legend
This thread might have excited me if this were 1997, but after getting his mega-budget ego set in stone from Spidey I don't think he's going to make the kind of horror film horror fans associate him with.
And, yet, I'll probably still go see it.
And, yet, I'll probably still go see it.
02-29-08 | 09:42 PM
#10
DVD Talk Special Edition
I still have nightmares about the "evil" Peter Parker dancing scene.
03-01-08 | 11:54 AM
#13
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Originally Posted by abrg923
How is this a "return to horror" when he did 30 Days of Night?
i think they mean writer/director...not just producing. he's produced a couple horror movies since his evil dead days.
07-28-08 | 12:00 PM
#14
DVD Talk Hero
Some chatter from Comic Con, some mild spoilers:
Sam Raimi's DRAG ME TO HELL has a terrible trailer that makes it look like a rip-off of THINNER, but he showed us a few clips that were more reassuring. Allison Lohman plays a young lady trying to impress her wealthy boyfriend (Justin Long), and in so doing denies a bank loan to an old woman, who proceeds to place a curse in retaliation. We got to see a scene set in a garage at night, all shot through aqua filters, where the woman shows up in Allison's backseat, and a fistfight ensues that involves stabbing, multiple crashes, dentures, cinderblocks, and the old lady trying to eat Lohman's chin. Just the mix of camp and creeps you'd expect from Mr. Evil Dead.
In another scene, Lohman is sleeping as a fly buzzes around her face, goes in one nostril and out the other, then forces itself into her closed mouth. She coughs, wakes up -- and suddenly the old woman is there beside her in bed, vomiting worms. Cut.
Good clips, but seriously, the trailer is waaaay lame. Cut a new one.
In another scene, Lohman is sleeping as a fly buzzes around her face, goes in one nostril and out the other, then forces itself into her closed mouth. She coughs, wakes up -- and suddenly the old woman is there beside her in bed, vomiting worms. Cut.
Good clips, but seriously, the trailer is waaaay lame. Cut a new one.
07-28-08 | 01:25 PM
#16
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From: Somewhere between Heaven and Hell
Yeah, the puking old lady right into Alison's mouth was pretty fucking nasty.
07-28-08 | 03:52 PM
#17
Originally Posted by devilshalo
Yeah, the puking old lady right into Alison's mouth was pretty fucking nasty.
So if Drag Me To Hell does well at the box office, will they Greenlight Evil Dead 4?
07-28-08 | 03:57 PM
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From: Somewhere between Heaven and Hell
Raimi said that he and his brother were going to discuss Evil Dead when someone from the audience asked him about it. And that due to his series Burn Notice, they couldn't work Bruce into a cameo for Drag Me to Hell.
Edit:
Found a Youtube of it..
Edit:
Found a Youtube of it..
Last edited by devilshalo; 07-28-08 at 04:04 PM.
