We remember when you had to buy Evil Dead on unmarked VHS tapes under tables in pubs. But after a highly lucrative cinema reboot last year, the formerly video-nasty franchise is to be beamed to anyone with access to a screen.
Starz, the HBO-alike behind "Games of Thrones with pirates" series Black Sails – an enjoyably silly Sunday afternoon watch on Amazon Instant Video, we find – has commissioned a 10-episode run of Ash Vs Evil Dead, a telly follow-up penned by none other than original writer-director Sam Raimi with his brother and Darkman co-writer Ivan.
Just as importantly, cult chin Bruce Campbell is also back on board to brandish the boomstick, alongside a little light producing as he did with the big-screen remake. As is the way with TV, Raimi will get down and dirty directing the first episode, which airs in the US next year, before donning his production-only hat and handing over the camera to, we assume, a roster of rotating directors.
With subscription telly getting ever-bloodier, bringing Ash's gore-laden, one-handed war against a demonically possessed undead horde to the mainstream certainly makes more sense than it once did. That said, Netflix's straight-to-VOD stinker Hemlock Grove is a hard smell for TV horror to shake – although Raimi and Campbell are certainly the chaps to shake it.
Either way, upon hearing the news I fear Gerald will be shuffling around with a face like this all day… [Deadline]
shares