By Dead by 2022! Dead by 2022! Despite the cancellation of Ash vs. Evil Dead we will not be without deadites much longer. Bruce Campbell has revealed that the next Evil Dead sequel will get shooting this year and start coating actors in gratuitous blood sometime later in the year in New Zealand, a favorite spot for the film’s producer, Sam Rami, to film from his years making Hercules and Xena.
“Planning to shoot the next Evil Dead movie in New Zealand later this year,” Campbell, who is a producer on the film but will most likely not appear in it, said to Knox News . [via ComicBook.com]. “[It’s] set in a modern-day urban setting. It’s out of the woods.”
The film is brining a few new looks to the franchise. Campbell has previously spoken about how Evil Dead Rise will kick off a new era for the franchise, delivering a series of films that are connected by the deadites killing folks but move away from Ash and his chainsaw into more anthology-style films. Basically the Book of the Dead will be found by a bunch of folks and they’re all gonna get blood on them because of it. That leaves those hoping for a return of Fede Alvarez’s take on Evil Dead a bit out of luck but the idea of the deadite cam swerving through city streets is pretty intriguing. The franchise, after all, was built on three drastically different films.
The film will have a female lead and Raimi and Campbell have already found their writer/director in Lee Cronin, who made the little-seen The Hole in the Ground. That film was visually interesting if not the most horrifying movie and definitely missed the kind of gonzo blood and comedy that the franchise is known for. It is possible Cronin brings a new, more grounded slant to the series or maybe he’ll adapt his own style into Raimi’s.
There’s no release date yet for the Evil Dead sequel, Evil Dead Rise.
