EVIL DEAD RISE Director Lee Cronin Talks About The Film and Pitching It to Sam Raimi

Director Lee Cronin (The Hole In The Ground) and producer Sam Raimi are currently developing the next film in the Evil Dead franchise, and it will be taking things in a very different direction as Bruce Campbell’s Ash will not be involved.

The new movie is titled Evil Dead Rise and it will center on a whole new everyday guy heroic character. Campbell also previously teased that the story will be set in a city, saying, "The Evil Dead are going to fuck up a city this time.”

Cronin recently talked about his film and how it came to be. He also talked about the process of pitching the film to Raimi:

"It was definitely a process, is the first thing I would say. I've always been a fan. When I'm a fan of something, I would never consider ever wanting to do anything with it. I've always loved Evil Dead, I always thought it would be awesome to make an Evil Dead movie. I'd love to have a go if they were ever going to do something. So when Fede Alvarez's [reboot] came out in 2013, I was like, 'Goddamn. I wish that was me. I wish I could be the person that was doing that.'"

He went on to talk about his meeting with Raimi, saying:

"I'm actually not as a writer/creator, especially with something in horror, I'm not like, 'This is what I would do.' I tend to not think that way about stuff. I approach original ideas from different places. My engagement with Sam, that was exciting, and we started to talk about Evil Dead, and he was probing at me and where my interest might lie, or would I be interested in taking a look at it. My initial instinct was like, not that it was in any way a 'no,' I was super excited, but I wasn't sure what I would do at that point. So I kind of appealed for a little bit of time to allow me to think and figure out where I would take it and what I might do with it. And that allowed me to think about it from a point of view of being a fan, but then also to let go of being a fan and come up with a great idea for a movie with a great set of characters and a great set of circumstances that would work with all the things that I know Evil Dead fans would love. So it was a process."

But, Raimi wasn’t the only guy that Cronin had to impress, he also had to sell his idea to franchise producer Rob Tapert, as well as Bruce Campbell:

"It certainly wasn't me meeting with Sam and going, 'I've got this in my back pocket and I've always been waiting to play this card. I was just glad to meet with a filmmaker that has been inspirational to me and remains an inspiration to me to then have the opportunity, for him to give me the opportunity to think about what I would do. That was the really great part. And that sums up how Sam and Rob Tapert and Bruce work. They're really super supportive of your vision and your ideas, and that's really what they gave me. They gave me this space to go and figure out what to do and, I guess, thankfully, they saw something in my work that got them excited to allow me that freedom."

Well, if Cronin was able to impress the Evil Dead family with his pitch, then it must be good! I can’t wait to see what he came up with for this next story!

Source: CB