For the first time since 1992’s Army of Darkness, the team of director Sam Raimi (who executive produces and directs the pilot), actor Bruce Campbell, producer Rob Tapert and writer Ivan Raimi have reunited for a new chapter in the story.
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Lucy Lawless: Jill, who plays Amanda Fisher, and my character, Ruby Knowby, team up, and we are Thelma & Louise gunning for that moron [points to Bruce Campbell across the room] and his two loser mates.
Bruce is so in charge of his persona. [Fargo producer] John Cameron, friend of ours, was like “Yeah I was up really late last night, saw your Knots Landing”. He’s so fun to work with and he’s always fun. “If there’s a quip to be said after you blow a head off, why not?” Sometimes, you’ll think both things at the same time. So, that’s the fun thing to do is interact with other people. They just couldn’t understand it. It was a syndicated show. Though he wouldn’t get into specific names, he said Starz was the victor because it wouldn’t censor them.
“The nice thing is, nobody has to know the Evil Dead franchise to get into this”.
He works at Value Stop now. When it came time to make Evil Dead, we needed a auto we could endanger and possibly hurt.
“I’ve been around for 20 years in their lives, whether they like it or not”, says Lawless, laughing. “We’ll give you all the recap you need”. “I do geriatric stuff”. We don’t take that seriously. We’re not like, “Oh, he’s older but he’s ageless”. He’s not. He’s getting on in his years and he’s f***ing exhausted. “That’s what you did with horror movies back then… you banned them, because they were a fringe form of entertainment”.
I feel like Ash, despite his constant and reliable screw ups, has just gotten cockier. “Where were you when it was just television?”
I noticed one shot in the trailer. Now you actually have to have him talk like an adult. It might not be when you want it, or how you want it, but he does. It’s like, we’ve had to educate them.
How many opportunities do you have to have the “Woods cam?” It’s a big part of the movies. Fans have been waiting on another movie or something and now we’re bringing them a TV show. As much as I was enjoying becoming reacquainted with it, I was also saying goodbye to it at the same time.
With the experience, resources, and technology you’ve accumulated, was this a breeze compared to making the movie 30 years ago? However, for fans wondering if the TV series will change the mood or pace of the franchise, there is nothing to fear. Are you going to try to make a few of those elements materialize in the series? People just want their thing. “Because now he knows I’m going to read in every review, “The aging Lothario starts by hooking up a geezer girdle and lookin” for his teeth'”. Wish I’d thought of pitching it before Mark did!
Campbell: That’s right! Yeah, we’ve just done five hours. “Within the genre, there are all different ways you can go. As an artist, we like to just say what we want to say, do what you want to do in an unrestricted fashion, and Starz is finally allowing us to do that”.
So you haven’t ruled it out? He’s a bigger ass than before, like he knows more mechanically about the world, but he is not at all wise, not wiser.
Craig: Not too much more. Sam wants it to be true horror and then true comedy.
Even though Jones is playing a three-dimensional character and found inspiration from her mother, it can still be hard to relate to an African-American character that is written by someone of a different race.
Do you have a lot of action scenes?
Raimi, who’s probably still best known for the first three Spider-Man movies and “Oz the Great and Powerful”, shows he hasn’t lost his horror chops in directing the first episode, particularly with a spinning flashlight tension-builder. I’m like, “Yep!” That was it. While Campbell is as entertaining as ever, the series’ other main draw feels a bit, well, bloodless. Because Ash has got to have a family, you’ve got to see him interact with other people so you get to know more about him. “So they can believe in him because basically they’re looking in the mirror when they look at Ash”. Kelly is friends with Ray, not with Ash. So she sees this guy and is a little bit creeped out by him. This is more of an old-fashioned guy who fights monsters. “Why is he coming at me like this?” Everyone, including Lawless herself, was very closemouthed on just what Ruby is up to, but it’s clear she blames Ash for the Deadite outbreak. Nowadays, most cameras that we work with are equipped.
Q: They seemed to go in a new direction with the reboot. They go through a set of emotions that you might go through if you did see that demons and deadites are real. Let’s secretly take all the pens in the room, the 16 pens, and point them at Ash. They get out of it pretty quickly.
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