Burn Notice will soon need to bid farewell to Michael Westen. But Sam and Jesse may be sticking around for awhile. Creator Matt Nix has told TV Guide Magazine that he would “love” to come up with a spinoff for the characters played by Bruce Campbell and Coby Bell, while the latter makes a Burn Notice spinoff sound like a legitimate possibility. “It’s definitely something Bruce and I would both be into,” Bell told the publication. “It makes sense. It’s just a matter of lining things up.” Would you tune in for a Burn Notice spinoff? Yes, sign me up! No, enough with the spinoffs! View Poll »
With Fede Alvarez’s remake of Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead about to hit theaters on Friday, it’s a good time to take the Hot Tub Time Machine back to 1979 when rotary dial phones were still common and the Oz The Great and Powerful director was just an aspiring filmmaker with an idea for a bloody and original horror film. Movies.com has unearthed Within The Woods ¬ to be confused with Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods — the 30-minute proof-of-concept short that Raimi used to raise money to produce his 1981 horror classic, The Evil Dead. Before you click play, make sure you’re in a receptive and patient mood. This clip looks like it was bootlegged from a pre-cable TV tuned in to a particularly weak UHF station. (Remember those?) But if you can get in the right frame of mind to watch it, it’s pretty cool to see Bruce Campbell looking bespectacled and nerdy (as opposed to the Vegas Elvis impersonator he’s become) and to witness Raimi’s early promise as a filmmaker. The scene where heroine Ellen Sandweiss uses Campbell’s severed hand, which holds a knife, to dispatch him is a nice touch, although the scene where she repeatedly slams a door on a friend who’s she’s accidentally stabbed veers into unintentional comedy. (By the way, Sandweiss appeared as a quadling in Oz .) What do you think of the movie? Better yet, what do you think of the rotary-dial phone that appears near the end. Mwa-ha-ha-ha! [ Movieweb via Movies.com ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Like the drip, drip, drip of blood from a freshly mutilated corpse, the producers of Evil Dead have released two new video clips that reveal a little bit more of Uruguayan filmmaker Fede Alvarez’s super-gory remake of Sam Raimi’s horror classic. And, despite some disappointed critics, the movie is looking increasingly review-proof. What The Critics Are Saying About Evil Dead Alvarez’s blood-soaked Version 2.0 has generated a lot of buzz since its SXSW premiere, even if it didn’t universally wow the critics who’ve written about it. The headline of Chris Tilly’s IGN review called Evil Dead “A Brilliant New Take On A Horror Classic,” and Variety’s Joe Leydon wrote that “The rare remake that likely will be enjoyed most by diehard fans of its predecessor.” But other reviewers weren’t so generous. SlashFilm’s Russ Fischer groused, “look away from the gore and you’ll see a confused movie that lurches in different directions from one step to the next.” And Indiewire’s Eric Kohn wrote: “With simpler aims and oodles of blood, the new movie is a watered down scare-fest that works in spite of its formula by constantly frightening audiences into submission.” And yet, with the exception of Fischer, the aforementioned critics seem to agree that, whether or not Evil Dead holds up under their critical scrutiny, it is going to put asses in seats. As Kohn wrote: “The enthusiasm from SXSW may help kick off solid word of mouth, but this movie more or less sells itself with the trailer. ” The big question, as Leydon pointed out, is whether the gore factor “could literally scare off [audiences] accustomed to less explicit, PG-13 fare.” That could mean the difference between a great box-office take and merely a good one. New Videos Generating More Buzz As for the clips, the first is a relatively tame TV spot that’s more about ratcheting up tension than chainsawing off limbs. The second is a teaser for Wondercon, (where the film will be screened next) that features an intro by Alvarez and producers Bruce Campbell and Rob Tapert. [ Variety , IGN , SlashFilm , Indiewire ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
The rare remake that likely will be enjoyed most by diehard fans of its predecessor, Evil Dead often comes off as the cinematic equivalent of a cover-band concert tribute to a supergroup’s greatest hits — albeit with a lot more gore. First-time feature helmer Fede Alvarez’s blood-soaked reprise of Sam Raimi’s franchise-spawning low-budget shocker, The Evil Dead , boasts far better production values than the penny-pinching 1981 original and conceivably could delight genre fans who have never seen the first version or its previous remakes/sequels. But it’s bound to play best with those who catch Alvarez’s many wink-wink allusions to Raimi’s pic. Working from a script he co-wrote with Rodo Sayagues, Alvarez briskly sets up his recycling of Raimi’s horror premise — five friends visit a secluded cabin in the woods where all hell breaks loose — with an aptly portentous prologue and backstory-heavy opening scenes. But Alvarez goes Raimi one better, by actually offering a logical reason why the characters don’t immediately vamoose once supernatural manifestations begin. Mia (Jane Levy), a drug-addicted young woman trying to go cold turkey, is undergoing physically and psychologically agonizing withdrawal, and her companions — including prodigal brother David (Shiloh Fernandez) and medically trained buddy Olivia (Jessica Lucas) — are loath to interrupt the recovery process. Besides, all those terrible things Mia claims to see are just hallucinations triggered by withdrawal, right? Wrong. Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci), the academically inclined member of the group, finds in the cabin a mysterious Book of the Dead filled with horrific illustrations, mysterious symbols and ample warnings not to read aloud anything that appears in its ancient pages. Unfortunately, Eric does not heed those admonitions, awakening a familiar demon for a new generation of young victims. Mia is the first to be infected by the monstrously malignant and singularly foul-mouthed bogeyman, but it doesn’t stop there, inspiring her cabin mates to damage themselves and each other in creatively gory ways. Alvarez repeatedly references plot elements and specific shots from Raimi’s original pic. Taking his cue from the original, he makes especially effective use of lenser Aaron Morton’s swooping, swirling camera movements, which suggest the POV of a rampaging poltergeist. But Alvarez’s tone is completely different, as the helmer rarely attempts to emulate the self-mocking, over-the-top campiness that distinguished the original Evil Dead from so many other cheapie creepies of the 1980s. Actor Bruce Campbell (who’s onboard here as a producer) more or less established himself as a cult figure back in the day with his inspired overplaying of Ash, the astonishingly resilient protagonist of Raimi’s original. In Alvarez’s version, Fernandez’s David serves the equivalent role, but he’s deadly serious. Indeed, the only character who even gets to crack a joke is Pucci’s Eric. Asked if he’s certain that actions described in the Book of the Dead will rid them of the troublesome spirit, the frantic fellow replies, “Am I sure? Of course not! It’s not a science book!” Levy is believably beastly as the possessed Mia, and manages the heavy lifting when her character must handle some last-act heroics. Other members of the cast do what they can with thinly written parts. For instance, it’s not really Elizabeth Blackmore’s fault that her role as David’s g.f. is so ill-defined and unimportant that some may forget she’s in the pic until she starts to make lethal use of a nail gun. The bloody mayhem is so graphic and frequent throughout Evil Dead , one cannot help suspecting that alternate takes had to be shot to ensure an R rating. The emphasis on dismemberment and disfigurement should make this must-see entertainment for gorehounds, but could literally scare off auds accustomed to less explicit, PG-13 fare. Ultimately, the new Evil Dead will rely heavily on existing fans of this unlikely franchise to make a killing in theatrical and homevid release. Those who get the inside jokes should be easy to spot: They’ll be the ones laughing when the onscreen carnage erupts most furiously. More on Evil Dead : Bruce Campbell on the ‘Dead Serious’ ‘Evil Dead’ Remake, Crowning A New Ash And ‘P-ssy Filmmaking’
The Evil Dead Red Band trailer has arrived, and it turns out to be the same one that had audiences at NY Comic-Con screaming in their seats (and, apparently, leaking it on the web) . If you can stomach it, make sure to hang tight for the tongue-slicing scene at the end. It will make you talk funny for hours. I’ve also posted the trailer to Sam Raimi’s original 1981 film, The Evil Dead , so that you can compare elements of the first film with Uruguayan director Fede Alvarez’s remake . As with most contemporary reboots, Alvarez’s moves a lot faster. (He’s even lost the ‘The’ in the title for a more streamlined effect.) That said, the new trailer suggests that his Evil Dead will borrow some of Raimi’s filmmaking flourishes, particularly the way in which the camera would take the perspective of the evil spirit that infects the unfortunate cabin dwellers. Like the original, Alvarez’s version also has scenes involving evil vines and dismemberment by power tools, including what looks like a chain saw. Despite these similarities, when I interviewed Bruce Campbell at NY Comic-Con , he told me that the new Evil Dead, which opens early next year, will actually be quite different. For one thing, Campbell — who starred in the original trilogy and is a producer of the remake — said Alvarez’s version will be “dead serious” and won’t feature an Ash, the character he played. “There are no similar characters whatsoever. And we wanted that. That was intentional,” Campbell explained. “We didn’t want anything compared to anything. We didn’t want to put any burden on any actor to act like Ash or to imitate him.” Related Story: Read Movieline’s interview with Bruce Campbell. Read More at: http://movieline.com/2012/10/14/bruce-campbell-interview-evil-dead-remake-fede-alvarez-jane-levy-sam-raimi/#utm_source=copypaste&utm_campaign=referral Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Also in Tuesday morning’s round-up of news briefs: Paramount hosts an interactive event for its Oscar hopeful; Sony sets new release dates for Robocop and Elysium ; And over in India, two of Bollywood’s biggest stars tie the knot. Skyfall is James Bond Back to His Best Say Critics Critics have hailed the latest James Bond film, Skyfall , as one of the best in the series in years, a brave and stylish if occasionally sentimental entry which revives Daniel Craig’s standing as one of the greatest 007s four years after the disappointing Quantum of Solace . The movie, directed by Sam Mendes and with cinematography from Roger Deakins, has a 100% “fresh” rating on the review-aggregator site rottentomatoes.com, The Guardian reports . Jim Carrey Eyes Loomis Fargo for Napoleon Dynamite Director Carrey will star in the action-comedy based on the real-life $17 million theft of an armored car. Jared Hess is directing from a script by Danny McBride and Jody Hill. Carrey would play the ex-military leader of a band of Southern armored car guards who pull off the theft, THR reports . Paramount Mounts Flight Interactive Events for Its Oscar Hopeful Taking place the day after the film’s world premiere as the closing-night attraction of the 50th New York Film Festival, director Robert Zemeckis, writer John Gatins and several cast members including John Goodman, Don Cheadle, Bruce Greenwood, and Melissa Leo took part in the interactive post-screening Q&A that featured tweeted questions from the California venues and live queries from the New York audience, many of whom appeared to be industry voters, Deadline reports . Sony Moves Robocop to 2014, Sets Elysium to Summer 2013 Sony/TrisStar moved up Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium , the follow up to the director’s District 9 , from March 1 to August 9. The sci-fi pic set on a space station stars Matt Damon, Jodie Foster and Sharlto Copley. The pic is taking the spot previously occupied by Robocop which is being pushed back to February 7, 2014, THR reports . Two Top Bollywood Stars Tie the Knot Hugely popular Bollywood stars Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor were married in the Indian city of Mumbai. The pair are known as Bollywood’s “first couple,” BBC reports .
Bruce Campbell wasn’t kidding. On Saturday, I interviewed the actor , who starred in and produced the original The Evil Dead trilogy with Sam Raimi and is now producing a remake , and he told me that Uruguayan filmmaker Fede Alvarez’s reinterpretation is “dead serious.” Unlike Raimi’s movies, which mixed the director’s distinct style of humor with groundbreaking (literally) horror, Campbell says the remake is a “full-on old-school horror movie with make-up effects.” And lots of blood and gore judging from this stomach-turning trailer that leaked from NY Comic-Con. Don’t be put off by the initial graininess of the footage, the focus gets fixed which makes me question the clip’s bootleg credibility. But it certainly makes a compelling case for horror and gore fans to see the movie. There’s lots of blood, scenes of people removing infected limbs with kitchen and garden power tools and one particularly memorable shot of a young possessed woman slicing her tongue down the middle. (I guess she wants to speak with forked tongue…ba-dump-bump!) The trailer also suggests that Alvarez has adopted Raimi’s technique of shooting scenes from the perspective of the fast-moving evil forces that invade and infect the group of pretty-but-unfortunate souls who find the Book of the Dead in an isolated cabin. Prepare to scream, like the crowd members do at the beginning of the clip. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter .
In a sea of lumpy Spandex, half-assed Harry Potter costumes and face paint, Bruce Campbell set quite a sartorial standard at New York Comic-Con on Saturday. The square-jawed actor — who’s currently seen in the USA Network cable TV series Burn Notice but built a hardcore following by playing the character of Ash in Sam Raimi’s groundbreaking 1980s The Evil Dead comic-horror trilogy — wore a beacon-like red tuxedo jacket and complementary black-and-red patent leather shoes. The colorfully candid Campbell was on hand at the Javits Center to draw attention to the remake of Evil Dead that he, Raimi and Rob Tapert are producing. (The three were producers of the original films as well.) Set for an April 12, 2013 release by Columbia Pictures’ Screen Gems division, Evil Dead will mark the feature debut of Uruguayan commercial producer Fede Alvarez and feature young cast that includes Jane Levy ( Suburgatory ) and Jessica Lucas ( Cloverfield). The screenwriters include Raimi and hyper-stylist Diablo Cody ( Juno ). Like the original, the remake is about a group of young friends in a remote cabin who discover The Book of the Dead and, one by one, succumb to its evil. But, as Campbell tells Movieline, the comparisons end there. Read on to find out how the movies will differ, what Campbell really thinks of basketball shorts, actress Jane Levy’s performance, CAA agents and George Lucas’ decision to tweak his Star Wars movies. And if you haven’t seen Panic Attack!, the short film that got Alvaraez the Evil Dead job, it’s posted below. Movieline: Those shoes are something else. Do you own them or did you rent them? Campbell : These are mine, baby. They’re beautiful. It’s Comic-Con. C’mon, let’s step it up! I’m trying to encourage other people who go to Comic-Con: Put on a nice shirt –and pants, too. While you’re at it, could you press your fucking t-shirt? And what you think about the basketball shorts? Should we just get rid of those? I’m trying to class this joint up a little bit. How will Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead compare to the original? Higher quality production, better actors, better special effects and a different telling of a similar story. You’ve still got your five kids and a nasty book in an isolated cabin. Is there an Ash? Nope. There are no similar characters whatsoever. And we wanted that. That was intentional. We didn’t want anything compared to anything. We didn’t want to put any burden on any actor to act like Ash or to imitate him. I hear you turned down a cameo in the movie. Nobody said “yes” or “no” to anything, so that’s false. We discussed it as filmmakers: Would it be worth it? Should we do it? But the tone of the movie is dead serious. It’s not jokey enough. This not a funny movie. If there’s laughter, it’s nervous laughter. There will not be ha-ha laughter. None. It’s a full-on old-school horror movie with make-up effects. Alvarez got this gig because of his short film Panic Attack! That’s what got us started. Fede is a Uruguayan filmmaker. He made commercials, Pepsi commercials. He does Panic Attack! in his spare time. He puts it out there on a lark. It went viral. Three weeks later, he was literally in Spielberg’s office. He met everybody. His agents are CAA now. I can’t get those assholes on the phone. How did he get on Sam Raimi’s radar? Sam was one of his meetings. They liked each other. Sam wanted to develop Panic Attack! into a feature, but that got bogged down. Fede was a big fan of Evil Dead , and so he pitched a story that we all liked. The three of us — myself, Sam Raimi and Rod Tapert — decided to get back involved in this and support this guy. He’s a very smart, talented guy. I mean, he really is too smart for his own good. [A man in basketball shorts walking through the conference room distracts Campbell.] See? Basketball shorts. Would it kill him to put on a pair of pants? I hate how right I am. I’m glad I wore long pants. You were talking about how the Evil Dead remake came to be. So that’s how it was born. It could have gone either way, you know. The guy had never made a feature film before. He’s telling a story longer than a 60-second Pepsi commercial. That’s a big challenge, and he succeeded on many levels. His actors are good and solid and give great balls-to-the-wall performances when they have to. Fede was also very mature about the whole thing. He’s very respectful of the genre. He’s not making fun of it. He’s not punking it — he’s just telling his version of it. And he didn’t over-shoot it. He didn’t over-edit it. It’s such a well-edited movie, and that’s pretty rare. Most movies — the editing sucks. Like, they’ll never hang on a full sentence. They’ll come in halfway through. They’ll cut away after ten seconds. There’s a lot of shitty work out there. Where did you shoot the movie? We shot it in Auckland, New Zealand because we did all the Hercules and Xena shows down there. The Kiwis are top-notch workers; great crew members. So, we just gave Fede all the support that we could possibly give him — a better budget, qualified crew members, good actors. We liked his script and we left him alone. You don’t need to sit over a guy’s shoulder. You turning up on the set would probably be pretty intimidating. I sat in on the auditions, and some of the actors that came in were like, Nyaaaaaa! I felt bad because the idea was not to freak them out. It was to let them know that we’re into it and we’re taking it seriously. And I just think we pulled the right actors. Jane Levy — I’m going to crown her the new Ash myself. She’s got it. She’s got it. You never know, either. We thought she was good in the room, but you get on a film set and what are they like? Are they tough? Are they pussies? Are they assholes? Are they crazy? What were you? Tough. And Jane was a tough little shit, too. Really tough. I asked her in the room: “How are you with extensive special effects for an extensive period of time. Have you ever done that?” No. “Well, do you know what that’s going to be like?” What’s it like? It’s the fucking worst experience you can think of. It’s terrible for your skin. You’re an hour and a half, two hours putting it on. You shoot a 14-hour day, and it’s a hour to take it off. Then you start the whole damn thing over the next day. This goes on for 10 weeks. I wanted to hang myself after those movies. And we pushed every actor to the limit. Jane, we pushed her over the edge. So, she’s the new Ash. You said it, not me. You said you were going to crown her the new Ash. If they want me to crown her, I’ll crown her — because I support her. I’m really impressed with what she did. Could this be a trilogy in the way that the original Evil Dead movies were? Easy, but you have to talk to Fede about that because I don’t know if he would do it. He’s got lots of crazy ideas. I want to go to double bills. The original Evil Dead paired with the remake. It would be a great midnight double bill. Alamo Draft House, Austin, Texas. Lines around the block — I’m telling you. I’ll go introduce it myself. If you could fix anything about the original Evil Dead movies, what would you do? I wouldn’t because that’s pussy filmmaking, man. It is. You see the garden hoses shooting shit? Yep, that’s right! We did the best we could, pal. In 1979, we got the movie in the can for $85,000. You’re going to get what you get. We’re not George Lucas going back to fix our effects. Sorry man, you blew it. You got to get over it. You can’t obsess like that. That’s cheating. What’s next for you? I’m finishing Burn Notice . I’ve been six years on that spy show for USA. It’s been a fun show. That’s my day job, and it eats up seven months out of my life. So the other five months I don’t feel like doing anything. The last break I just worked on developing a bunch of new scripts because you can’t do stuff without scripts. I’ve got three new ideas that I got written up last year. I like all kinds of genres. I want to do a few more little low-budget movies. I love low-budget movies. Are there any recent horror movies that you like right now? I don’t watch movies — it’s the weirdest thing — because I feel like I’m going to work. I see actors looking at their marks. I see them cheating to the camera. I see out -of-focus shit. I see a lousy shot. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
As soon as Movieline heard that Mad Men ‘s Jared Harris would be playing Sherlock Holmes’s archenemy Moriarty in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock sequel A Game of Shadows , we were intrigued. After all, how would the Sterling Cooper taskmaster stack up against the long line of actors who have played Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s criminal mastermind — including Laurence Olivier, Orson Welles, Henry Daniell, Paul Freeman and Vincent D’D onofrio? We may not have the answer just yet but we do have the first image of Harris as the “Napoleon of Crime.”
