Surprising horror news this morning, with the sudden announcement that Fede Alvarez is no longer working on a sequel to his recent reboot of the Evil Dead franchise.
Having spoken at length about how he planned to tie his story to the Sam Raimi movies, Alvarez’s departure comes as something of a shock, particularly given the first film’s solid box-office showing.
However, it seems there has been a parting of the ways, with co-writer Rodo Sayagues also dropping out of the project.
“Look, I am sorry to tell you this but that movie won’t happen,” said Sayagues to Shock Till You Drop . “ Evil Dead 2 is not going to happen, at least not with us involved.”
“We left that project many months ago because we preferred to put our energies on other things. I don’t know if the producers still have intentions of making it. But what I can tell you is that we are not part of that project.”
With the first film having made around $80 million profit on its initial budget, it seems unlikely that Ghost House will scrap a sequel altogether, but what the next step is remains to be seen…
In the meantime, we’ll be clinging on to rumours that Sam Raimi is set to make Army Of Darkness 2 with a returning Bruce Campbell. Buckle up, bonehead!
UPDATE
Alvarez has given an update to Bloody Disgusting refuting the above story, explaining that a sequel is not on the immediate horizon but is still a prospect further down the track.
"Rodo meant we’re not actually making Evil Dead 2 right now because the priority is Sam’s Army of Darkness 2 ," says Alvarez. "But the plan of making a sequel to our Evil Dead is very much alive."
Looks like it's harder to make a corpse of this one than we'd first thought! Never turn your back on a deadite...
