A few weeks ago Phil Collins’ daughter Lily Collins was cast as the lead in the remake of Evil Dead being produced by Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell and directed by Fede Alvarez (Panic Attack!).  I found out about this on the internet (I browse). Yesterday, Variety’s Jeff Sneider tweeted, “Again, in case you missed it, LILY COLLINS is OUT of THE EVIL DEAD reboot due to a scheduling issue. Agents, start your engines…” Wow, strange grammar even infects Variety’s tweets, not JUST their ARTICLES… (Or do they have some confusing abbreviation for “articles” they’re trying to make happen now? Like “tickles” or “artics”? I shouldn’t give them ideas.)

The movie is still scheduled for release April 12th of next year. Collins was going to play the character of Mia, who is described in this spoiler-filled synopsis:

In this version, the story centers on five friends (David, Natalie, Eric, Olivia, and Mia) holed up at a remote cabin where they discover a Book of the Dead with a demonic force unleashed possessing each until only one is left to fight for survival. [...] David is a mechanic and is engaged to Natalie. Mia is the friend who is heading to the cabin to detox; Olivia is her best friend/nurse. Eric, presumably, is the kid who unleashes the demons. After a recent overdose, Mia struggles with her new-found sobriety. She begins acting insane, so it comes as no surprise that nobody believes her crazy claims of coyote dogs and trees attacking her! [Bloody-Disgusting]

So Mia rants about coyote dogs and scheming trees? They need to cast Gary Busey. It would be the gender-bending role which will finally land him that Oscar. Oscar, in this case, being a coyote dog barbequed to perfection over a flaming pile of conniving trees.

[Hat tip and another day in paradise to ThePlaylist.]

Not that anybody could replace Bruce Campbell, of course, but someone will have to play the lead in the remake of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead since Campbell is only co-producing (with Raimi) and playing a cameo role. Fede Alvarez (from the Panic Attack! short film) will be directing the remake, which is going to star Phil Collins’ daughter Lily Collins as Mia, the replacement for Ashley J. Williams, which doesn’t seem too far off from the joke I made when I heard Diablo Cody was rewriting the script (“maybe Ashley will be a pregnant teenager who fights a Kraken in a mall fountain in the third act”).

Collins played Sandra Bullock’s daughter in The Blind Side, was also in Priest and Abduction, and was cast in Tarsem Singh’s upcoming Snow White movie because he liked her eyebrows. Man, I wish I could be a director and cast people based on their eyebrows. Oh, who am I kidding? I would never cast people when I could put cats in those roles instead.

Bloody-Disgusting broke the news and also have a story summary which definitely contains a spoiler:

In this version, the story centers on five friends (David, Natalie, Eric, Olivia, and Mia) holed up at a remote cabin where they discover a Book of the Dead with a demonic force unleashed possessing each until only one is left to fight for survival. As we also exclusively reported, there is a drug subplot.
As previously explained, David is a mechanic and is engaged to Natalie. Mia is the friend who is heading to the cabin to detox; Olivia is her best friend/nurse. Eric, presumably, is the kid who unleashes the demons.
After a recent overdose, Mia struggles with her new-found sobriety. She begins acting insane, so it comes as no surprise that nobody believes her crazy claims of coyote dogs and trees attacking her!

For more updates on the Evil Dead remake, continue reading the internet. Because, when I want news about upcoming films, I browse.

As reported yesterday, the Evil Dead remake is finally moving forward with Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi producing and Fede Alvarez (from the Panic Attack! short film) directing.  Bruce Campbell (or someone doing a very good impersonation of him) confirmed the news on Twitter, saying, “Believe in the remake, dawg! The project is real. In the works. Cool as hell. Scary as hell.”

Now Vulture reports the script written by Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues is going to be polished by the same person polishing her Oscar in the banner picture: Diablo Cody.  Last night she tweeted, “Fede Alvarez wrote a brilliant script. My job is easy. Have no fear. (Wait, do have fear.)”  Sounds like they want to interject more humor into the script as there was in Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness.  Or maybe Ashley will be a pregnant teenager who fights a Kraken in a mall fountain in the third act.  Hail to the queen, homeskillet.

[Thanks to "Jamaal Charles’s Stolen TDs" for the tip.]

They’ve been talking about it for years, and now they’re finally doing it: Sam Raimi is doing a prequel to “The Wizard of Oz”.

Oh, yeah, also, he’s producing a remake of some horror movie he made in the ’80s.

Joking aside, yes, after literally years of talking about it, Raimi is following through with a remake. We guess the fourth Evil Dead is off the table for now, which is kind of sad since it was going to open with a fat, old Ash on the Moon, which would have been awesome. That said, unlike most horror remakes, there’s actually hope this one won’t suck.

For starters, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell are both intimately involved: Raimi’s putting up the money through his Ghost House label, and Campbell is a producer. Even better, Raimi is actually involving other personnel, like his editor, in the movie, so he’s taking it pretty seriously. Secondly, they got Freddy Alvarez, who you might remember from the short “Panic Attack!”, to direct. And finally, there’s no studio involved: this is being independently produced, so no idiotic notes like “Can we soften the gore?”

We’re looking forward to this one, we have to admit. Don’t let us down, Sam.

[ via the eldritch beasts at FilmStage ]

A few weeks ago, I posted the short film Ataque de Panico! (Panic Attack!), by director and special effects artist Fede Alvarez (video below).  Now Alvarez is in talks with Sam Raimi to film a full-length feature for the Ghost House production label. Slashfilm reports:

Apparently the two have already spoken at length and the expectation is that Raimi will help Alvarez make the transition to feature filmmaking without too much interference from suits and money men.
According to a report in El Pais (via Film Junk), the film that Alvarez has signed on to make for Ghost House will also feature giant robots. He’s working with a budget of $30 to $40 million and has a $1 million fund just to fund script development. [...] According to Alvarez, he and Raimi share a vision of what the feature film should be and this is why he was happy to sign with Ghost House. It seems that he didn’t even keep his appointments to meet with “Dreamworks, Fox, Warner and The Weinstein Company”.

Hopefully, the finished product will be like District 9 rather than this guy turning out to be the Uruguayan Michael Bay.  I’d make a joke about how Uruguayan Michael Bay differs from regular Michael Bay, except I have no knowledge of Uruguayans.  Are they one of the square states by Nebraska?  I guess I’ll just have to make up some stereotypes about them.  Hmm.  I’ve heard they all ride around on Shetland ponies and listen to instrumental indie rock.  Therefore, Uruguayan Michael Bay likes to strap dynamite to ponies and his favorite band is Explosions in the Sky.

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Save us, Sky Captain!

Quietearth found this short film (below), Ataque de Panico! (Panic Attack!), by director and special effects artist Fede Alvarez.  Giant robots invade Montevideo, set to John Murphy’s music from  28 Days Later. You could film two roombas slamming into each other and that music would make it epic.

I love this clip despite its overuse of shaky cam and its falling back on some action movie cliches (i.e. car flying into the camera, old-timey baby stroller rolling down stairs, et cetera).  It reminds me of the short film District 9 was based on, “Alive in Joburg“.  I hope this short film leads to a full-length feature as well.  Watching robots blow stuff up is my anti-drug.

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