Lily Collins to star in Evil Dead remake

The long-awaited Evil Dead remake is close to making its first piece of major casting, with the announcement that Mirror Mirror ’s Lily Collins is on the brink of signing on to star.

Collins is in line to play a character named “Mia”, who we understand is one of the five friends who decide to take an ill-advised trip to a remote cabin in the woods.

As in the original film, the gang discovers a dusty tome known as The Necronomicon, from which reading a passage out loud results in all hell breaking loose, and various souls being swallowed.

According to Bloody Disgusting , Mia has recently suffered a drug overdose and is looking forward to a weekend of detox at the cabin. Therefore, when she starts claiming to have been attacked by the trees outside, her friends just assume it’s some sort of post-traumatic paranoia.

We’re not sure how well Collins' casting will go down with Evil Dead fans after the cutesy awfulness of the Mirror Mirror trailer, but then again, this is hardly a project that’s been bathed in universal adoration from the get go...

Directed by Fede Alvarez from a script co-written with Rodo Sayagues and Diablo Cody, The Evil Dead opens in the US on 12 April 2013.

George Wales

George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.