Fede Alvarez Leaves EVIL DEAD 2; Updates on Alvarez' MACHINA and DANTE'S INFERNO

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EVIL DEAD Director Fede Alvarez and Co-Writer Rodo Sayagues Won't Return for Sequel; Updates on MACHINA and DANTE'S INFERNO

By Matt Goldberg

Published Oct 30, 2013

Director Fede Alvarez has left the Evil Dead sequel according to co-writer Rodo Sayagues; he's turned his attention to Machina and Dante's Inferno.

Fede Alvarez' remake of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead was a modest hit, and gory beyond all reason. Alvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues were tapped to develop a sequel, but now Sayagues says they're off the project. At Comic-Con, the sequel sounded like it had already stalled with Alvarez telling STYD, "When there's a story to be told, that's when the sequel is good ... We're just trying to figure out what story we want to tell," but it turns out they didn't have much of a story at all. In a recent interview, Sayagues says they left the project months ago.

Hit the jump for more including the status of Alvarez' other films, Machina and the adaptation of the video game Dante's Inferno.

Speaking to Gorosito.TV, Sayagues said,

"Look, I am sorry to tell you this but that movie won’t happen. Evil Dead 2 is not going to happen, at least not with us involved. We left that project many months ago because we preferred to put our energies on other things. I don’t know if the producers still have intentions of making it. But what I can tell you is that we are not part of that project."

That's not just, "we're off the project". That's "the project is dead", but then pulling it back to say "maybe the producers still want to do it." But usually that kind of a switch gets an announcement in the trades. If Alvarez and Sayagues left the project months ago, and the producers haven't tried to pick up steam on a sequel, then perhaps there's really not enough to will to make Evil Dead 2 happen.

evil-dead-set-photo-shiloh-fernandez-fede-alvarez — Image via Sony Pictures

Alvarez and Sayagues are turning their attentions to the sci-fi film, Machina. Up to this point, details on that movie are being kept under wraps, but it's worth noting that the short film that brought Alvarez to Sam Raimi's attention, Panic Attack!, wasn't horror but sci-fi/disaster with giant robots and spaceships attacking Paraguay. Sayagues says Machina will be their next movie, and says it's about "the story of a teenager who gets in troubles with a large corporation in Los Angeles of the near future."

Beyond Machina, Sayagues says they're still developing Dante's Inferno (a video game ostensibly based on Dante's epic poem, but really it's trying to ape God of War) along with an original horror movie plus two more projects in early development. So while it looks like a new Evil Dead franchised is kaput, Alvarez and Sayagues will probably be sticking around for a while.