Looking to replicate the success of last year's Evil Dead Rise (directed by Lee Cronin), franchise overseers Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert are hiring another filmmaker to head off in a different direction with a fresh spin-off. Up-and-coming director Sébastien Vaniček has been hired to make a new movie for Ghost House Pictures.
According to Deadline, the new film's story is being kept under wraps. And the spin-off nature means that this doesn't remove the possibility that Cronin will go on to make a Rise sequel (he has ideas for where it can lead), it simply represents Raimi and Tapert finding more talent to usher in other movies featuring those terrifying Deadites.
Vaniček, who scored some notice thanks to his work in the short film world, really stepped up with French horror Vermin ,(AKA Infested) which sees an apartment building overrun with deadly spiders. It first introduced as part of the Critics’ Week sidebar at the Venice Film Festival. The film won Best Picture and Best Director in its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest, and was also invited to the Sitges Film Festival, where it earned a nomination for Best Motion Picture and won a Special Jury Prize.
Though it has largely played festival screenings so far, we'd expect it to get snapped up for distribution outside of France before too long – and this new move for Vaniček will certainly help those chances.