Another ‘Evil Dead’ Movie in Development

The director of incoming crime thriller ‘The Last Stop in Yuma County’ is the newest person hired by producer Sam Raimi to extend the ‘Dead’ franchise.

Bruce Campbell in 'The Evil Dead.' Photo: Renaissance Pictures.

Preview:

Filmmaker Francis Galluppi is developing an ‘Evil Dead’ movie.
Sam Raimi is on board to produce.
It follows the last announcement just a couple of months ago.

It would seem that ‘Evil Dead’ overlord (and director of the original three movies) Sam Raimi is creating a sort of moviemaking Thunderdome for future installments of the horror franchise.

Mere months after Sébastien Vaniček was reported as being in development on an ‘Evil Dead’ film comes word that another, American director Francis Galluppi is, via Deadline, in talks to make his own take.

So yes… Deadites galore!

The Evil Dead

"The ultimate experience in gruelling terror."

NC-171 hr 25 minOct 15th, 1981

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Who is Francis Galluppi?

Director Francis Galluppi. Photo: FilmFreeway.

Galluppi is a filmmaker who has largely worked in shorts and on other directors’ projects but made his own directorial debut with ‘The Last Stop in Yuma County’, which follows a traveling salesman who, while stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop, is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty — or cold, hard steel — to protect their bloodstained fortune.

The movie will be in theaters on May 10th.

Galluppi apparently conjured an original story set within the ‘Evil Dead’ universe and pitched it to Raimi.

Here’s what Raimi told Deadline:

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence. He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

What is already happening with a new ‘Evil Dead’ movie?

1981's 'The Evil Dead.' Photo: Renaissance Pictures.

Back in February, the news arrived that director Sébastien Vaniček had landed a ‘Dead’ gig after his work caught Raimi’s eye.

The French filmmaker has been drawing attention thanks to his horror movie ‘Vermine’ (or, to give it both of its English language titles, ‘Vermin’/‘Infested’.

That movie was first introduced as part of the Critics’ Week sidebar at the Venice Film Festival. Watching as the residents of a rundown French apartment building battle against an army of deadly, rapidly reproducing spiders, the film won Best Picture and Best Director in its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest, and was also invited to the Sitges Film Festival, where it earned a nomination for Best Motion Picture and won a Special Jury Prize.

He signed with agency CAA off the back of ‘Vermine’s success, and has been out and about taking meetings, which is how he ended up on Raimi and Rob Tapert’s radar, since they’ve said they’re always looking for new talent to pick up the ‘Dead’ flag.

Raimi and Tapert produce new ‘Evil Dead’ movies through their Ghost House Pictures company, but it remains to be seen where any new film ends up.

What’s the story for the new ‘Evil Dead’ movies?

Bruce Campbell in 1982's 'Evil Dead II.' Photo: Renaissance Pictures.

It seems more likely, though, that the producers hiring new directors means it’ll be a whole other story, albeit one featuring the trademark Deadites in some fashion.

Since the ‘Evil Dead’ stories pivoted away from the original movies’ character of Ash (played by Bruce Campbell, who also reprised the role for a spin-off TV series), a whole new world of terrifying opportunities has opened up for the franchise.

Which means these new movie could be about any number of situations where the infamous Necronomicon tome causes chaos.

What of any follow-up to ‘Evil Dead Rise’?

Alyssa Sutherland as Ellie in New Line Cinema’s horror film 'Evil Dead Rise,”' a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

Last year’s ‘Evil Dead Rise’, written and directed by Lee Cronin, brought the ‘Dead’ movies howling back to life.

Though Cronin said at the time that he had ideas for where sequels could lead following his Deadites-in-a-high-rise horror, and the film’s successful $147M worldwide box office, there has been no announcement about a follow-up.