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The Evil Dead Remake Will Have a Female Lead, and It’s Lily Collins

by Jamie Frevele | 1:58 pm, January 5th, 2012


All I can say about this is “WOW.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, the team remaking The Evil Dead had a very different kind of lead in mind for the new flick and has already made an offer — to Lily Collins. You heard me: a female lead for the new Evil Dead, which is being co-written by Diablo Cody (along with director Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues). Are we ready for this, fellow primitive screwheads? Come inside, but be aware that there are some minor plot spoilers. We will protect you from them with our chainsaw arms. (Actually they’re not big spoilers, unless you really don’t want to know anything at all about the movie.)

Word was out late yesterday that an offer had been made to Collins, currently starring in the Snow White movie Mirror, Mirror (and daughter of Phil Collins), and now it looks like it’s official. Collins will be playing the lead role of Mia, who travels to the cursed cabin in the demon-infested woods with her brother, David, his fiance Natalie, and friends Eric and Olivia. You may recall that there was talk of a drug addiction subplot, which involved a male lead taking his sister, the (former) addict, to the cabin with some friends, and everyone else thinking that her demon sightings are an indication that she’s not quite sober yet. But now it looks like rather than the brother being the lead and battling the demons, it will be the sister doing all the dirty work.

Bloody Disgusting seems to be the source of this casting news (that link contains no additional spoilers, by the way), saying that Collins was in final negotiations with Ghost House and Mandate Pictures to take the role of Mia, then updating to confirm that Mia was, indeed, the lead role. We already knew that Bruce Campbell‘s Ashley J. “Ash” Williams was out, but will be making a cameo appearance as a different character. But despite our own guesses as to who could replace Mr. Campbell, it turns out that there were other plans entirely. And personally, I can hardly be upset about this.

Sam Raimi, who is producing the remake, gave us a taste of what a female lead could do in a Raimi horror film with his first post-Spider-Man release, 2009′s Drag Me to Hell. While Alison Lohman‘s Christine Brown could hardly be considered a heroine (the whole movie seemed to be her battling some angry karma after she denied someone a loan), she participated in her fair share of supernatural battles. She also proved that a woman could carry a Sam Raimi movie, which is a very specific breed of horror movie. Raimi, a fan of slapstick as much as he is of horror, likes to torture his characters, but not exactly in a Saw kind of way. More like in a Three Stooges kind of way. And that gives a terrifying movie what you never thought you needed: comic relief.

Of course, Christine Brown was not the easiest person to root for. She was insecure, a little selfish, kind of feeble as a person. And while the details are sketchy on this Mia character, will her fragile state as a recently overdosed, newly sober drug addict make her harder to root for as well? Or will she be another Christine Brown, someone we kind of want to watch suffer?

If that sounds harsh, let me remind you: Ash was not the sharpest knife in the drawer, either. He did what he had to do, as did Christine, but he made a lot of mistakes. Stupid ones. Boneheaded, even. And no one took him seriously, either. (In the commentary for one of the movies, I think the second one, Campbell refers to Ash as “The Idiot Ash.” So, this is how Raimi and Campbell approached this character in the first place.)

However, such humor may not even have a place in the remake at all. One thing that will be different compared to the latter two Evil Dead movies (Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness) is that it will not include a lot of Stooges-style slapstick in it. It’s said to be straight horror, possibly sprinkled with a couple of silly moments here and there, not unlike the first Evil Dead movie. In fact, that’s exactly the idea. Says THR:

The Evil Dead remake aims to take the property back to its serious and bloody horror roots, bypassing the comedic elements that became more prevalent as the sequels went along.

Alvarez and Sayagues wrote the original draft together, then handed it over to Cody for a pass. And I can tell you that everyone who skipped Jennifer’s Body because they were protesting Megan Fox missed out big time. This was a horror movie written by Diablo Cody, and it was great. It was creepy, it was disturbing, it was funny. But make no mistake — it was a horror movie. And Cody would never do wrong by The Evil Dead.

But as is the nature of fandom, for as many people who are excited as I am, there will be many, many more who will be amazingly pissed about all of this. But count me in. And hopefully this time: less tree rape.

Production on The Evil Dead is set to start in March, with a release date of April 12, 2013. So far, Collins is the only cast member.

(The Hollywood Reporter via Twitch, Bloody Disgusting)

Previously in Evil Dead

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  • http://twitter.com/nachtritter Duke Fleed

    No, Jennifer’s Body wasn’t great. Your opinion is not the same as my opinion, therefore you are wrong.

    Still, nothing will beat the original Evil Dead trilogy in the hearts and minds of its fans. I guess I’ll just try and see it as a new adaptation of a same story, despite the original Evil Dead not being based on anything. XD It will just make it more palatable, I think. Yeah, I can fool myself.

    I have a problem with “The Evil Dead remake aims to take the property back to its serious [...] horror roots” though. While not exactly a role model for slapstick humor, TED was not entirely serious: it was exaggerated, over-acted horror, to the point of ridiculousness at times — TED2 perfected that. But there was a layer of deranged, insane dark humor underneath all the blood and pus.

  • http://twitter.com/deliriumbubbles deliriumbubbles

    1) Jennifer’s Body was awesome and hilarious, and 2) Original TED was GOD AWFUL. I loved 2 and 3, but holding up deliberate B grade horror as unremakable is silly. I’m not looking for something to BEAT Army of Darkness. I’d be fine with another good damn horror movie by Diablo Cody. There’s no point in doing something over point by point. You have to bring something new, and have it be interesting in its own right. 

  • http://twitter.com/johnnykaje K. Johnston

    My anti-remake (especially regarding Evil Dead) side is in a standoff with my feminist side. Oh god what do I do

  • http://twitter.com/urbansuburbia Marie

    I am intrigued and look forward to more info.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001816631122 Keith Renderman

    Cancel this fucking shit! Keep feminism out of movies that don’t need it! I respect Feminism and all but a film like Evil Dead DOES NOT need it let alone Diablo Cody shoving her Meta-humor bullshit into this franchise. Another thing that comes to mind is the fact that they could have done Evil Dead 4 or Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash instead but instead they had to shove out another fucking remake loaded with goddamned CGI.

  • Anonymous

    “Cancel this fucking shit! Keep the movement for basic equality between sexes out of movies that have people of different sexes in it! I like to say that I respect Feminism and all but I perceive the existence of a female character alone to be a clear and blatant example of purely political motives, and I don’t like it when my ideas about heroism in my favorite fandom are challenged or asked to expand in even this most basic way.” 

    Well, that’s all I hear.

  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous
  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_R7GVNIKWG3S2UTHEQOMSZXT4M4 Anna B

    I’m not quite sure if I’m ready, but I’m willing to see how it goes. Bruce Campbell on Evil Dead is an impossible act to follow. I can see the merits of a lady in his role.

    I am, however, a bit crestfallen that it’s leaving behind its comedic tone. That’s what I liked about The Evil Dead so much. In fact, watching this over and over again when I was a youngun, I relied heavily on the fact that though parts scared me shitless, I had the laughs to rely on to exorcise that fear.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/William-Dean-Luke/1245322900 William Dean Luke

    ….I am so not goign toe ven bother watchign this flick…I’m so sick of Remake’s that take the film’s way out to left field of what their original intent was. The first Evil Dead was actually supposed to be scary, but it’s cult following found it so humously inneffectual that the second film added more slapstick and an insane amount of bodily fluids to the point of hillarity…By the third film, they’d perfected the mix of horror and comedy to make the movie enjoyably stupid in it’s presentation.  I don’t like these Hollywood remakes. Hey! Hollywood! FIND SOMETHING NEW TO MAKE MOVIES ABOUT AND STOP DESTROYING MY CHILDHOOD WITH GAUDY, STUPID REMAKES!

  • Anonymous

    You are amazing and I love you.

  • Carmen Sandiego

    This definitely has my attention, especially since it’s Raimi-produced and Campbell-approved.  Having a female lead is a good choice, methinks, and appeals to me, and many of my Evil Dead-lovin’ friends.

  • Life Lessons

    I think this will be AWESOME!!!

  • Life Lessons

    And uh, why is it that when a movie gets a remake with a female lead and writer people get hysterical about feminism getting into their movies? 

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001816631122 Keith Renderman

    I never said I had  a problem with female leads it’s just the fact that they are being so unoriginal and lazy  instead of making an original movie they are just going to do a remake of a older movie and the fact that it will have ALOT of cgi which is typical for these type of remakes (The Thing). I don’t know where you got that entire “HURR I DON’T LIKE FEMINISM OR IMPROVEMENT IN MODERN DAY SOCIETY DURR” statement from but it tells me that you just stopped reading right after I said Feminism. Maybe instead of rearranging my words you could point out the flaw in my statement?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AOFTU2AM7WRZZFDC6SPN4XF6KQ Null

    Actually, you raise a really good point. Put a woman in the lead and nobody will compare her to Bruce.

    Clever!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GG3BFDYBC2MPXBSJSMZ5SVWSSQ Nobamanomore

    I agree keep femniism out fuckign movies. It usually ruins them.

  • Adam Whitley

    Don’t think of it as a re-make think of it was Earth-2 evil dead.

  • Adam Whitley

    because people are stupid

  • http://twitter.com/SynGamer Dustin Barton

    Obviously you have shit taste in movies if you actually liked Jennifer’s Body and feel that the original Evil Dead was “god awful”. While I agree TED 2 and 3 were great, I simply can’t look past that fact that you actually liked Jennifer’s Body…

    Where is the dislike button?

  • Adam R. Charpentier

    Is “Keep feminism out of movies that don’t need it” or “Keep the lead of Evil Dead male” the statement you’re making?

    Also, Evil Dead 4 or Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash would have been terrible, don’t kid yourself.

    Also, all of the latest horror movies, remakes, reboots, and sequels have been loaded with CGI, including Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell. So, that would happen regardless.

  • Adam R. Charpentier

    Like I said elsewhere:

    Is “Keep feminism out of movies that don’t need it” or “Keep the lead of Evil Dead male” the statement you’re making?Also, Evil Dead 4 or Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash would have been terrible, don’t kid yourself.Also, all of the latest horror movies, remakes, reboots, and sequels have been loaded with CGI, including Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell. So, that would happen regardless. 

  • Adam R. Charpentier

    That’s the issue I have with the taking of The Evil Dead title, that they’re darkening the tone. Drag Me To Hell proved that a Raimi-feel and a female lead fit perfectly, but it sounds like they’re just making a horror movie, female lead, with a borrowed and unrelated title.

  • Adam R. Charpentier

    Agreed.

  • http://www.facebook.com/dustin.b.kimball Dustin Blaize Kimball

    Using a woman as a main character is just a classic tactic to maximize profit. They will probably also incorporate a black hip-hop actor-”artist” somewhere in the mix as well . Hollywood is constantly trying to figure out why people aren’t going to the movies anymore…It’s because they have made it all about money, and nothing about art,constantly using graphs and target demographic figures to determine how to squeeze every dime out of an audience. Writers no longer have creative control. This movie will bomb. An evil dead without slapstick humor, full of CGI, and pithy juno dialoge….I’m already disgusted.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/WSWMQDIEWWL7YY3UGRR77YSNHY .

    She is beautiful!

  • http://www.facebook.com/adrian.inness Adrian Inness

    I keep asking people… but what is up with Lilly Collins? Why is she growing out a unibrow?
     

  • SupernaturalCat

    Having a female Ash doesn’t generate any “wow” whatsoever …rather, yawns.

    Of course!!! the ED remake would have a female ‘Ash,’ because that’s an expected ingredient within the genre formula i.e. females spend the majority of what are termed “leisure dollar$” in the US, hence genre movie makers are DESPERATE to cater to that demographic

  • SupernaturalCat

    It’s because females are cast in genre movies due to formulaic expectation and subsequent (hoped for) profit, not ideological or sociopolitical reasons. And that’s coming from a man who agrees with the basic tenets of feminism.

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