It’s been 10 long years—and one weird-ass Oz movie—since Sam Raimi directed a nasty little treat called Drag Me To Hell, the Evil Dead director’s most recent foray into cinematic horror. (Although, to be fair, he’s been keeping busy with the TV spin-off Ash Vs. Evil Dead.) Still, the news that Raimi’s getting back to his blood-soaked roots in the world of uber-gory, POV-shot-heavy fright flicks is always welcome, and so we’re happy to report that Raimi has formally signed on to direct a new, untitled “horror thriller” for his old pals at Columbia Pictures.
We don’t know much about the film, but we do know this: It’s being described as a combination of Misery and Cast Away, which sounds like a formula for some extremely twisted island-based fun. (Will someone end up having to either swallow or expel a bucket full of some kind of bright green goo? One can only hope.) The film is being written by Mark Swift and Damian Shannon, whose past forays into horror include Freddy Vs. Jason, the 2009 Friday The 13th reboot, and the Baywatch movie. (They were also once on the hook for Genies, the live-action Aladdin prequel movie Disney was toying with for a minute there, which we’d completely forgotten about, and will now be thinking about for the rest of the day.)
Raimi was reportedly shopping the film around, but as soon as Columbia—where he made his blockbuster Spider-Man movies—got wind of it, they snapped the movie up faster than you can figure out how to work a Bruce Campbell cameo into a film that takes place on a deserted island.