Movies
‘Evil Dead 2’ Loses Fede Alvarez, Sequel In Jeopardy…
When the film premiered at the SXSW Film Festival back in March, director Fede Alvarez, pictured below, and co-writer Rodo Sayagues revealed they had already begun work on a sequel to their remake of Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead. While Alvarez had never committed or confirmed that he’d direct Evil Dead 2, he recently took to Twitter to tell a fan that Raimi was focusing on helming Army of Darkness 2. At the time he made no indication that he wouldn’t be back for more deadite madness – but unfortunately, it sounds as if the sequel took a massive step backwards. In fact, Sayagues tells Gorosito TV that Evil Dead 2 isn’t happening.
“Look, I am sorry to tell you this but that movie won’t happen,” he tells the site before dropping the bomb. “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.”
Those of you who hate remakes, hated Alvarez’s vision, and hate the idea of it continuing forth should be celebrating – for the rest of us this is a dagger in the heart. If you recall, it took Raimi and his Ghost House Pictures eight years to find a director and a take they liked. With Raimi focusing on Army of Darkness 2, it sounds like this modern adventure will have no finale, at least for quite a few years. Hopefully, Raimi’s AOD 2 experience lights his fire so much so that he decides to get behind the camera for the larger budgeted Evil Dead 2… there’s always that rumor that the two franchises would merge again.
The buried origins of the cinema zombie will be explored in upcoming documentary Black Zombie, and Deadline reports that Kino Lorber has picked up the doc for U.S. release.
Kino Lorber will release Black Zombie in theaters later this year.
From writer and director Maya Annik Bedward, Black Zombie digs beneath the blood-soaked spectacle of modern horror to uncover the zombie’s buried and unsettling origins.
Long before it became associated with flesh-eating ghouls, the zombie was a living metaphor for slavery: not a monster, but the ultimate victim of colonial power.
Deadline further details, “Director Maya Annik Bedward traces the evolution of the zombie from colonial Haiti to contemporary Hollywood, reconsidering iconic films like White Zombie, Night of the Living Dead, and The Serpent and the Rainbow alongside archival footage, vérité scenes, and interviews with cultural historians, artists, and genre legends including Yves-Grégory Francois, Mambo Labelle Déesse, Slash, Tom Savini, and Zandashé Brown. Part cultural reckoning, part horror remix, Black Zombie exposes how a figure born from enslavement, spiritual belief, and resistance was transformed into one of pop culture’s most profitable monsters.”
“I’m thrilled to partner with Kino Lorber on the release of Black Zombie,” said Maya Annik Bedward. “The film explores the power of images to shape our understanding of history, culture, and race, making it especially meaningful to work with a distributor so deeply engaged with cinema’s past and present. Their passion for films that challenge, illuminate, and expand our understanding of the world makes them an ideal partner for bringing this story to audiences across the U.S.”
Kino Lorber’s Karoliina Dwyer adds, “The zombie is one of the most iconic images in cinema, and you’ll never look at them the same after watching Black Zombie. Maya Annik Bedward has crafted a fascinating, deeply researched documentary that unearths the long-buried Haitian origins of the genre, interrogating colonial, political, and Hollywood history to powerful and illuminating effect. We’re so proud to bring this documentary to U.S. audiences this fall.”
Executive producers for the documentary include music legend Slash.
‘I Walked With a Zombie’ (1943)
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