Get ready to cringe, people who hate the idea of remakes, reimaginings, and redos, the latest news about the Evil Dead remake is a doozy. Anybody who is a fan of the original Evil Dead movies, or any of Sam Raimi’s work in general, knows the name Bruce Campbell. He of big chin and cocky attitude is such a strong personality, such a big screen presence, that finding somebody to replace him in his iconic, fame-making role as Ash was probably the biggest hurdle that this remake had in front of it. How many young actors can you think of out there that could feasibly replace Bruce Campbell and not make it seem like a total letdown when he chops his hand off? I can’t think of many. Maybe Paul Dano would have been fun, just for the overacting. Well, instead of dealing with this problem head-on and trying to find the perfect person to play the new Ash, it looks like the creative minds behind this new Evil Dead are throwing us a curveball. In this movie, the main character is no longer Ash. Ash is now Mia, and the role is going might be played by…Lily Collins. I know what you’re asking yourself right now, you’re asking yourself, “Who the heck is Lily Collins?” I know, I had the same reaction. Well, she’s a young actress who was not only in the movie Priest (did anyone go see that one?), but she was also the daughter in The [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

You have the right to remain silent… forever! It should surprise no one that Larry Cohen came up with the tag line above before a single word of his script for Maniac Cop was written. It’s beyond perfect, and it sums up the attitude behind the film pretty damn well. Director William Lustig had been best known for his Joe Spinell slasher, Maniac, so Cohen worked his magic and scripted this film with a similar sounding title but a more blackly comic tone. The result is a genre “classic” that spawned two sequels of varying quality and remains an entertaining slice of horror cinema. Arrow Video in the UK released Maniac Cop to Blu-ray last month, and we gave it a test drive below.

There is a giant maze of odd circumstances when it comes to re-making, re-imagining, sequelizing or prequelizing a beloved property. You get into situations where you’re making a “prequel” to a movie while sharing the same name as said movie (see: The Thing). You also fall into a weird zone where you have to keep enough of the DNA of a project to earn the name while making enough of it different to accommodate for new fans (see: every reboot ever). Then, you have the strange personnel situation where you’re remaking a fan-favorite film, but your lead actor from years past is both 1) still alive and 2) too old to reprise the character. So what do you do? Do you re-cast some poor schlub into a role he can never own? Do you scrap the character entirely and raise eyebrows? According to Bruce Campbell, it’s the latter. Shock Til You Drop was keen enough to find some tweets from Campbell responding to the Ash Question looming over The Evil Dead remake. “No Ash character currently,” was the straightforward message. It still seems to leave the door open for Ash to walk through, but as of now, it sounds like the production team is attempting to remake a movie without its main character. It’s just one of those weird choices that must be made when walking the tightrope of remakes, but they’re damned if they do or don’t. There is no right answer here, but for now, it looks like [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

You never know. You just never know. I wonder if back in 1930, Universal Studios make up artist, Jack Pierce while constructing his “monster” make-up on actor Boris Karloff, had wondered if he was creating something transcendent. Something that would forever infuse itself into the western culture generation after generation, becoming the mental image that every brain would access when it heard the name “Frankenstein.” I bet he didn’t. I bet ol’ Jack had an assignment, did the best job that he could, collected his meager paycheck and was grateful to be working during the depression. Truly, that is the way it is. You never can tell what will connect with audiences. You just do the work, collect your salary, and thank God you are not pounding the pavement looking for your next job. Evil Dead II is one of those cult favorite films that so much of has been discussed and revealed through interviews, articles, supplemental videos on DVD’s, convention panels, etc., that I’m not sure what I can add to all of this information besides my individual view point. Forgive me if you’ve heard much of this information before; just know that what you are now reading is not being pushed through the filter of a reporter. I was there in Mark Shostrom’s South Pasadena studio. And although, again, I didn’t go to location in North Carolina, what I designed and sculpted at Mark’s would follow me to this day.

Like a Johnny Depp casting announcement for a Tim Burton movie, there’s no real surprise that Bruce Campbell is going to be in Sam Raimi‘s Oz: The Great and Powerful. The actor revealed as much through twitter on Thursday, stating: “I. Am. In. Oz. Sam Raimi refuses to tell me what character I will portray. Just know that the role is PIVOTAL.” That’s great news, especially for Campbell diehards, but his use of the word “pivotal,” (even in all caps!) should be taken with a huge chunk of salt. He made similar claims about his roles in the Spider-Man films, which turned out to little more than cameos, so don’t be surprised when he shows up as a man that sells Pivots to James Franco. But, who cares? It’s Bruce Campbell. Thus, it should be awesome.

If you’re in the mood for definitive news about movies, you pretty much have to wait until they’re done. If you’re in the mood for loose promises and casual statements, then San Diego Comic Con 2011 is the place for you! At a panel early-ish Thursday morning at SDCC, Bruce Campbell captivated audiences as he’s apt to do and then was asked about Evil Dead as he is every single day of his life.

If you tried, you could probably find a bigger Evil Dead fan than me. It might take a little bit, but you could. I mean, I’ve got my three T-Shirts, my Necronomicon copies of the movies on DVD in addition to several other versions, including Blu-ray transfers, I’ve got my toys, books, comics, and video games too. So while I’ll never claim to be the biggest Evil Dead fan, I can say I’m a pretty big one. For years I’ve waited on a continuation to the story. I remember my first experiencing watching the original movie at a sleepover. It was Steve’s house, but he fell asleep early after playing too much Command & Conquer. Only me and Matt were awake and he, no joke, got a boner from the tree rape scene. There was always something off about Matt. But it wasn’t long after that I found the second. I remember Army of Darkness in theaters. Everything Bruce Campbell wrote or said about the franchise, I ate up. Waiting to hear about Evil Dead 4. When talk turned to a remake instead of a continuation, I was upset but hopeful. Maybe Campbell would be in it. Maybe they would cast Seann William Scott and that wouldn’t be all that bad, would it? Now we have firm news that the Evil Dead reboot is moving forward – time to praise the lord? Hardly. What we know sucks and here’s why.

Late last night a lot of questions got raised about a new Evil Dead movie. There were reports that a new one was going into production, conflicting reports that Sam Raimi was just casting for his upcoming Oz: The Great and Powerful, and then confirmation from Bruce Campbell that a remake was ready to happen. This morning Bloody Disgusting was able to clear things up quite a bit by reporting that Raimi does indeed have a “quasi-remake” of The Evil Dead gearing up for production, but that he doesn’t intend on directing it himself. Instead the job is going to newcomer Fede Alvarez. Despite the fact that Bruce Campbell had the inside scoop on the project, there isn’t any word if he will have a role in the film or if they will be looking to cast all new actors. Given Campbell’s close relationship with Raimi, I don’t think that it’s a given that just because he knows about the project he will be in any significant way involved. That said, I think we can all agree that he better be. I would opine that a large reason Raimi’s first three films in this universe work is the screen presence of Campbell. Without him, you don’t have Ash, you just have some horror movie starring a dude.

Why not? There’s been talk all day about a remake of Sam Raimi’s low budget terror flick. Theoretically it will rise from the grave and come out of the mist sometime in the near future, but until then, let’s take a look at the original trailer for The Evil Dead. Filmed at a real-life abandoned cabin, this movie was the culmination of high school friends who spent too many hours playing around with Super 8 cameras in their youth. Unsurprisingly, they would grow up to film a scene where possessed trees rape a woman, proving that film school just isn’t necessary to create good art. That scene was actually banned in some countries, but the movie also achieved the rare feat of naming its lead male character Ashley and making him a badass. Now why isn’t anyone clamoring for a remake of It’s Murder!?

A fourth entry in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series is one of those long talked about, never going to happen, projects like an Arrested Development movie, or another Ghostbusters sequel that I’ve grown kind of tired of hearing about. I’ve been hearing the rumors about this movie since I was a teenager: Ash goes to the future, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, it’s going to be in 3D, etc.  It’s gotten to the point that whenever the next set of rumors about a new Evil Dead crop up, I roll my eyes and move along. So it was not out of maliciousness, but out of rumor fatigue when I rolled my eyes at Dread Central’s claim that they had a “very reliable source” telling them that Saim Raimi’s frequent editor Bob Murawski was headed to Detroit to start work on a new Evil Dead film. They also had a quote that the new Evil Dead would be “a small indie thing like the first two.” Turns out I wasn’t the only one to be suspicious of these claims, because Bloody Disgusting did a little digging of their own and said they discovered that Raimi was actually casting his widely known next project Oz: The Great and Powerful in Detroit. That would make more sense, and would have ended my interest in the matter, if not for another little wrinkle. Ash himself, Bruce Campbell, recently opened a Twitter account and when asked point blank by one of his followers about the [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

At last years Comic-Con, Burn Notice creator Matt Nix made a huge announcement. That a Burn Notice film was being put into motion starring everyone’s favorite alcoholic lady’s man, Bruce Campbell as the one and only Sam Axe. But I don’t think any of us expected it to be ready this soon. Nix said that the film was going to show how Sam was removed from the military and ended up in Miami. And boy did he… The first thing to take note of in this movie is that they kept Sam Axe well, Sam Axe. At no time was Sam given and overly serious story line to fill his back story. It was a simple, small group versus big army storyline. There’s no former lover who was killed. There was no family drama that led to Sam’s military removal. There was no dark crime that was covered up. Nix played it smart and gave us the Sam Axe we already know and love, and stuck him in Colombia.

Last year at Comic-Con, a major announcement came that put every Burn Notice fan into a state of gleeful joy. Matt Nix and co. announced that a prequel movie starring Bruce Campbell as the beloved Sam Axe was in the works and that we would see it sooner rather than later. And after the amazing cliffhanger from this past winter, that sooner can’t come soon enough. Well it looks like our first taste is here because USA Network has released the first trailer (or TV spot rather) for the upcoming TV movie Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe. Check it out after the jump.

If it’s even possible to reboot a reboot (and that’s essentially what Evil Dead 2 was for its originator), Sam Raimi is willing to try it. Of course, he’s been willing for a long time, but that’s never translated into results before. What makes this situation different? Nothing. However, according to Digital Spy, the director/producer’s business partner Rob Tapert claimed recently that he’s looking at a script for what would be either a reboot or a fourth installment in the franchise. The money quote: “What’s interesting about Evil Dead is very few people saw it in the format we made it for, which is for the theater… I think Sam wants to embrace the ultimate experience in grueling terror and see it remade for a proper theatrical experience.” That’s interesting, considering that the fan base has opportunities every so often to see the original on the big screen at festivals and special second run screenings. The world needs another Evil Dead movie like it needs another hand chopped off (although the success of 127 Hours might be the catalyst for the renewed interest here). Tapert mentioned that Bruce Campbell would be involved, which would be great, but this feels like a Crystal Skull situation. Let’s hope Raimi continues his streak of talking about it without actually doing it.

When the calendar page turns to October, we Rejects have only one thought: horror. To celebrate this grandest and darkest of months, we’ll cover one excellent horror film a day for the entirety of the month. That’s 31 Days of Horror and 31 Films perfect for viewing on a dark, chilly, October night. If you, like us, love horror and Halloween, give us a Hell Yeah and keep coming every day this month for a new dose of adrenaline. Synopsis: The night shift at a local grocery store are thrown into a tizzy when the ex-boyfriend of one of the cashiers shows up and starts some trouble. When employees start turning up dead, the minor scuffle escalates into a fight for life and death. (Death wins, for the most part)

When Anchor Bay announced they were bringing two awesome horror movies to Blu-ray, we knew it’d be mighty swell of us to share them with you. The Bruce Campbell-starring, Sam Raimi-when-he-was-good directed classic The Evil Dead makes its debut on Blu-ray with a few new features. Also on high definition for the first time is director Adam Green’s 80s throwback slasher Hatchet, which features a villain who could hold his own with the likes of Freddy and Jason. So if you want to win yourself a set of these Blu-rays, click on through to find out what to do. (Hint: We’ll need a blood sample.)

Episode: Past & Future Tense (Season 4, Episode 7) Synopsis: A toasty but not quite burned Cold War era spy teams up with Michael to dodge a Russian hit squad looking for state sponsored vengeance. Review: Can any episode featuring Burt Reynolds as a cold war spy be a bad one? Of course not. Though, to be honest, it wasn’t as great as I expected. Reynolds seemed to phone it in at times, though he’s not the youngest chicken in the game anymore. It was fun to see Paul’s willingness to fire off rounds down range at the Russians.

Kicking off the gigantic Ballroom 20 at the San Diego Comic Con (one of the largest rooms available) was Burn Notice, a panel that gave us the exciting news that Bruce Campbell would be starring in a prequel film about Sam Axe’s Navy SEAL exploits. While that was certainly the most newsworthy bit to come out of the room, there was plenty of fun to be had and little lessons to be learned. The living legend himself Bruce Campbell was the main attraction here, though show creator Matt Nix was there too, offering up plenty of insight into the future of the series. Also on the panel was Tim Matheson (Dead Larry) who guests in a few episodes and has directed several. The moderator was Chris Vance, who played one of the shows more enigmatic villains who met an explosive end.

In surprising and most excellent news, USA Networks honcho Jeff  Wachtel made a surprise announcement that brought the thousands of fans in Comic-Con’s Ballroom 20 to raucus applause. After explaining to fans that what the USA Networks had decided was that “we need more Bruce Campbell,” the decision was made to go forward with a Burn Notice prequel movie that will focus on Sam Axe, the lovable, womanizing, beer guzzling former Navy SEAL. The plot is said to revolve around Sam’s last mission as a SEAL, revealing just why he left the run and gun side of the business and become confidant to a spy.

Fiona and Jesse get the long stick as they find themselves searching for information on an island paradise while Sam and Michael aim to help a friend bring a scam artist to justice. Things go south quickly when one team is stuck in a hostage situation and the other comes up against an especially nosy neighbor.

Bruce Campbell gets to shine in the most recent episode of Burn Notice as his super-villain alter-ego Chuck Finley takes the Miami mob by storm.