[Interview] Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell On “Ash vs Evil Dead”!

Thursday, April 23, 2015

[Interview] Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell On “Ash vs Evil Dead”!

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From left to right: Executive producer Robert Tapert, star of the series and executive producer Bruce Campbell along with executive producer Sam Raimi, original filmmakers of the EVIL DEAD franchise, start production on the TV series “Ash vs Evil Dead” which will premiere this fall on Starz - © 2015 Starz Entertainment, LLC

Info from bloody-disgusting.com:

This morning Starz announced the start of production on “Ash vs Evil Dead”, a new television series based on Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead franchise.

And while the full details can be found here, Bloody Disgusting joined a roundtable – with Raimi, Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell – to discuss the inagural 10-episode season that brings Campbell back as the beloved Ashley J. Williams, the aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who has spent the last 30 years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead. When a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind, Ash is finally forced to face his demons – personal and literal.

“Ash is going to making friends and enemies on this show,” teased Raimi.

Tapert went into detail: “This incarnation has a team that forms around him, Pablo [Simon Bolivar (Ray Santiago)], a young immigrant who wants to be part of the American fabric and forget his roots – and through his encounters with Ash discovers what’s important to him.

“Kelly Maxwell (Dana DeLorenzo) is Pablo’s love interest,” he adds. “At first [she] doesn’t believe in Ash and wants nothing to do with him, but eventually becomes part of the team. They go about realizing there is something greater at play than a series of Evil Dead-like attacks.”

He continues: “[They are] joined by Jill Marie Jones [who] plays Amanda Fisher, a police officer who sees something that she doesn’t believe. [This] causes her great problems in her profession. She is on the trail to hunt down Ash because she believes he is responsible for the series of bodies [she finds] as a Michigan State Police Detective. She teams with Ruby (Lucy Lawless), [who] knows something about the Evil Dead and is also on hunt for Ash.”

The episodes will be 30-minutes long, which came as a surprise. Raimi expressed his excitement about this as it allows them to push the pacing up a notch.

“I really appreciate that Starz let us keep the half-hour idea,” said Raimi. “It’s really cool to me [because] we could really fire on a cylinders, be outrageous and fast-paced and nonstop without a lot of secondary character expositions.” There’s literally no padding, he says.