Ellen Page Joins Sam Raimi’s ‘Drag Me to Hell’

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on February 10, 2008

Juno star Ellen Page could be on the verge of winning an Oscar at the end of February. But shortly after that, sometime around March 17, she will begin work on Sam Raimi’s return to the horror genre, Drag Me to Hell.

Page joins the project, which was co-written by Sam and brother Ivan Raimi, right on the heels of her publicity blitz for Juno’s Oscar run. The story is said to be a tale of morality about an unwitting recipient of a supernatural curse. No word yet on what role Ellen will take in the film, but if I had to guess at this point, all signs point to some top billing for the young actress.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Ellen Page in a thriller; her performance in David Slade’s psychological stinger Hard Candy was a role that put her on many a radar. Drag Me to Hell also marks the long-awaited return of director Sam Raimi to the horror genre. With the exception of a producing credit on David Slade’s 30 Days of Night last year as well as other projects through his Ghost House Pictures label, Raimi has been all up in the cash-cow Spider-Man trilogy since 2002. And considering the fact that Spider-Man 3 was a huge disappointment to fans, it is good to see that Raimi is going back to the well. As for Ellen Page, we are all still enamored with her — she could play just about anything at this point and we’d go see it.

Drag Me to Hell is targeting a late-2008 release with Universal Pictures on to distribute it in the U.S. and overseas.

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