Fede Álvarez‘s 2013 breakout Evil Dead may be beloved post-release, but a newcomer taking the directorial reins on Sam Raimi‘s popular horror franchise understandably made fans nervous pre-release.
That was compounded by the announcement that the Oscar-winner for coming-of-age comedy, Juno, Diablo Cody, had been brought on board for writing duties. That her sophomore screenwriting effort, Jennifer’s Body, was a commercial and critical failure didn’t help either.
Luckily, worries were immediately eased upon Evil Dead‘s release in theaters; the box office success story paved a new path for the franchise that’s still going strong today.
But what exactly was Diablo Cody’s involvement with the 2013 Evil Dead reboot?
Speaking with Bloody FM’s The Boo Crew podcast on their newest episode dropping today, which also features Forbidden Fruits co-producer Mason Novick, Diablo Cody revealed her contributions to the gory fan-favorite feature.
“It was minor, I was surprised they had publicized my involvement,” Cody recalls. “I got to talk to Bruce Campbell on the phone. Obviously, there were many reasons I wanted to be involved, but that was a thrill.”
The producer and screenwriter’s focus was on Mia Allen, played by Jane Levy, a task she tackled while under heavy public scrutiny.
“I did a polish, I worked on it for a few weeks. It wasn’t a major rewrite or anything like that, and people were hostile about it at the time. I had so many haters at the time, I couldn’t do anything. I did work on it, but not extensively. Often, when there’s a female protagonist, especially at that time, they would bring me in, ‘Can you do a pass on her and make her feel a little more three-dimensional?’ I think that’s what my directive was.”
The rest, as they say, is history, with Evil Dead Burn on the way soon. It’ll be followed by Evil Dead Wrath.
As for Diablo Cody, not only is she keeping busy producing films like Lisa Frankenstein and Forbidden Fruits, she’s also hard at work on Jennifer’s Body 2. Stay tuned for more on that.
