After last night's ecstatic SXSW screening of Fede Alvarez' remake of Evil Dead, it was announced that a script is currently being written for the sequel. Earlier today, I got to interview Alvarez, and near the end of our conversation, I brought up his plans for Evil Dead 2. He says fans can expect that he'll be in no way copying Raimi's Evil Dead II, and this the new sequel will be "100% original". Also, since we've previously reported that Sam Raimi intends to start work on a script for Evil Dead 4, I asked Alvarez about his involvement with that film.

Hit the jump for what he had to say, and click here for my Evil Dead review. The film opens on April 5th.

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Talking about his Evil Dead 2, Alvarez says he's not officially on board yet because it depends on where they plan to take the sequel:

Last night, you all mentioned you were in the process of writing Evil Dead 2. Are you attached to that film, and where do you see this going?

FEDE ALVAREZ: I think it's going to depend on where we take it. Right now, we just got to write it. For me, it's if we manage to agree, but we're just starting to build a story and figure out what kind of movie it's going to be, and it depends on what it is. It depends on the story we find, because personally, I think it has to shock everybody. It has to go to a different place just like Army of Darkness did with Evil Dead 2. It has to do that switch that every Evil Dead movie did with the previous one.

Well you now have this new Evil Dead brand, but what does that mean if you're not copying the sequels, because Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2 is slapstick. It's a comedy, and that doesn't seem like it would fit with what you've established here. What does that mean in terms of going forward with the vision you've now established?

ALVAREZ: Well, right now you have to create something different and completely new. And it's exciting for me because in a long time, this, the new one—the next one—is going to be a completely new, fresh, 100% original, you bet. Because this one has so many ties to the first one that at the end of the day, being what it is, it's like a sound of the original movie. But this next one, it's not a remake of Evil Dead 2. It's something completely new and different. I'm so excited to see where that's going to go.

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It sounds like Evil Dead 2 is at a very early script stage, which isn't too surprising. The film is currently on the press circuit, so Alvarez probably has no time to get to working on the sequel. However, if Evil Dead is as successful with the main stream as it was here at SXSW, then you can expect Evil Dead 2 hit the fast-track.

I also asked Alvarez about a film that's been on a much slower track: Sam Raimi's long-promised Evil Dead 4. Since the two filmmakers are in communication, I asked about the status of the project:

Has Sam Raimi talked to you because he's writing Evil Dead 4 now—

ALVAREZ: He's not! He's not.

He's not writing it?

ALVAREZ: He wants to do it. I can tell you that because we've talked about it. He wants to try and find the best movie to do it. He has a story, he pitched it to me about what he wants to do with Bruce and Ash on Evil Dead 4. It's definitely something he wants to do. At the end of the day, bringing this saga back to life is the best way to do it. And look, they don't call him "The Master" just because.

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Image via Renaissance Pictures