Sam Raimi is suing to keep somebody from producing a new Evil Dead movie. Wait a minute — isn’t Sam Raimi himself producing a new Evil Dead movie? Yup, in fact his remake of The Evil Dead starring Jane Levy (the girl to the right) just began filming. The film Raimi is suing to prevent is the entirely unrelated Evil Dead 4: Consequences, which is being produced by a company called Award Pictures.
So wait, how did this unknown production company get the rights to the Evil Dead franchise? Uh, well, they didn’t. See, around a decade ago somebody at Award Pictures read a Raimi interview in which he said there’d “never be a sequel” to Army of Darkness, which signified to Award Pictures that Raimi had abandoned the Evil Dead copyright, freeing them to make their own sequel. It’s the same logic that makes it totally alright to steal bikes and garden supplies so long as people are just leaving them unused in their backyard. Wait, that isn’t alright? Hmm, somebody better tell Award Pictures. Also, I have some things to return.
Raimi is a wealthy, influential man, so it’s likely he’ll win his lawsuit. The only thing Award Pictures’ shenanigans will result in is more annoying vagueness and double-speak in interviews with movie directors and producers. Nobody is going to outright admit a film series is finished anymore lest another Award Pictures crawls out of the woodwork to try to claim it. Once again the legal system boldly strikes a blow against honesty.
Jane Levy via Shutterstock