Update: Jeff Sneider tweeted that Collins is no longer attached, due to scheduling issues.
After facing off against the Evil Queen in Tarsem Singh’s Snow White re-imagining Mirror Mirror, emerging ingénue Lily Collins (daughter of Oscar-winning musician Phil Collins) will battle hordes of ghastly demons in the controversial Evil Dead reboot.
Bloody Disgusting has revealed Collins has accepted the role of Mia, a drug-addicted young woman who heads to a remote cabin in some deeply sinister woods to detox with the help of her brother and three friends. But things soon go from afterschool special to full B-movie mode when they uncover the nefarious Book of the Dead and mistakenly unleash its demonic force. Worse yet, with Mia in the throws of withdrawal, her friends aren’t immediately aware of the demons in their midst!
Despite this inventive take on Sam Raimi’s original premise, fan boys have plagued the film’s development with web-based outcries at every turn. The very idea of touching Raimi’s cult classic enraged them, as did the proposed changes, as well as B-movie legend Bruce Campbell, who starred in the original trilogy, being relegated to a mere cameo role. But the fanboy wrath kicked into overdrive when word got out that screenwriter Diablo Cody did a pass on writer-director Fede Alvarez’s script. This is of course a strange response to news of an Oscar-winning writer being attached to a property. It seems nothing the film’s producers do can please the most hardcore Evil Dead fans. Does this mean these necronomaniacs will likewise decry the latest casting news that posits Collins as a central figure in this tale of twentysomething who discover something wicked in the woods? We’ll soon find out since she has some pretty big shoes to fill as Mia will be the film’s lead, and thereby the reboot’s Ash. (If you don’t know what that means, click here.)
It’s a bold and surprising move that sure to enrage some fans, but for me it’s one more sign that Alvarez and company are looking to break some new ground with the cult classic as a great jumping off point. Will it be better than the original? Who knows, but it’s sure shaping up to be interesting…
Also rumored to be in consideration for Evil Dead are Friday Night Light’s Jurnee Smollett and Community’s Gillian Jacobs.
What do you think of Collins being cast as the newfangled Ash?