• Sam Raimi will direct Magic for Lionsgate, a remake of the 1978 cult horror classic starring Anthony Hopkins
• The original film featured Hopkins as a ventriloquist whose dummy Fats begins murderously taking control of his life
• Screenwriters Mark Swift and Damian Shannon, who penned Freddy vs. Jason and the Friday the 13th remake, wrote the new script
• Raimi’s last film, Send Help, hit #1 at the box office for two consecutive weeks and grossed nearly $100 million worldwide
• Lionsgate chair Adam Fogelson called Raimi “the dream director” for the project

Sam Raimi is heading back into horror — and this time, he’s bringing a dummy with him. Lionsgate has set the Evil Dead and Spider-Man filmmaker to direct Magic, a modern adaptation of William Goldman’s novel that was first brought to the screen in 1978 with Anthony Hopkins in one of his most unsettling early performances.

The original film, directed by Richard Attenborough and scripted by Goldman from his own novel, starred Hopkins as Corky, a magician who rises to fame alongside his ventriloquist’s dummy, the obnoxious and wisecracking Fats. When Corky is on the verge of landing his own network television deal, he panics — terrified of exposing the fragile state of his mental health — and flees to the Catskills, where he tries to rekindle a high school romance. Fats, meanwhile, begins murderously taking control of the situation. The film also starred Ann-Margret and Burgess Meredith, and Hopkins’ performance was the kind of slow-burn, psychologically unraveling work that hinted at everything he’d later deliver in The Silence of the Lambs.

Raimi was already attached to produce the remake — he’d set it up at Lionsgate last year — but he’s now stepping into the director’s chair as well. Producing alongside him are Roy Lee (whose credits include It and the recent Weapons), Chris Hammond, and Tim Sullivan, the latter two having long championed the project and tracked down the original rights to get it off the ground. Raimi Productions’ Zainab Azizi will also produce. Nathan Kahane, Paul Fishkin, and Andrew Childs for Vertigo will executive produce. Meredith Wieck and Pavan Kalidindi are overseeing the project for Lionsgate.

“Sam is the dream director for this project — in fact, his coming aboard represents one of the truly great matches of director and material,” said Adam Fogelson, chair of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group. “The script is fantastic, and we could not be more excited to see Sam’s direction and creative vision take it to another level. We are absolutely thrilled he has chosen to direct the film.”

A Horror Dream Team Reunites

The script comes from Mark Swift and Damian Shannon, who are no strangers to the genre — they previously wrote Freddy vs. Jason and the 2009 Friday the 13th remake. More recently, they wrote Send Help for Raimi and Azizi, which makes this a full creative reunion for the team.

Send Help, Raimi’s twisty survival thriller released through 20th Century Studios/Disney earlier this year with Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, was a genuine box office success story — it topped the charts for two consecutive weekends and pulled in nearly $100 million worldwide. That momentum clearly gives Raimi some serious heat heading into this next chapter.

For fans of Raimi’s work, the fit here is almost obvious in hindsight. The man who built his career on the boundary between horror and dark comedy, who gave us Ash Williams and his possessed hand, who understands better than almost anyone how to make an audience laugh and scream in the same breath — putting him behind a story about a man who can’t tell where he ends and his puppet begins feels less like a casting decision and more like an inevitability.

No production timeline or cast has been announced yet, but with the script in place and Raimi officially on board, Magic is very much in motion. The dummy is ready. Whether we are is another question entirely.

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• Warner Bros. has released the first red-band trailer and poster for Evil Dead Burn, the sixth film in Sam Raimi’s franchise
• The film follows a grieving widow whose family reunion turns deadly when the Deadites are unleashed
• Directed by Sébastien Vaniček (Infested), the film stars Souheila Yacoub, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, and Tandi Wright
• Evil Dead Burn hits theaters July 10, 2026, with a seventh installment, Evil Dead Wrath, already in development

If you’ve been waiting for a horror trailer to genuinely disturb you this summer, your wait is over. Warner Bros. has dropped the first red-band trailer for Evil Dead Burn, and it is exactly as brutal as that title suggests — missing fingers, a car headrest embedded through a Deadite’s skull, a zombie drinking burning candle wax, and a very graphic reminder to always load your dishwasher with the knives pointing down. You’ve been warned.

The official tagline says it all: “Family is the root of all evil.” The film follows a woman who, after losing her husband, seeks comfort with her in-laws at their secluded family home. One by one, they’re transformed into Deadites — and as the synopsis puts it, “she comes to discover that the vows she took in life live on… even in death.” It’s a clever, emotionally grounded hook for what is clearly going to be an absolute bloodbath.

Evil Dead Burn is directed by Sébastien Vaniček, the French filmmaker who announced himself to horror audiences with the creepy-crawly spider thriller Infested (also known as Vermin). It’s a very Evil Dead way of doing business — Raimi and his partners have a long history of handing the keys to hungry first-time feature directors. Fede Álvarez got the call after his short film impressed the franchise’s rights holders. Lee Cronin earned his shot on the strength of The Hole in the Ground. Now it’s Vaniček’s turn, and based on this trailer, he’s pulling absolutely no punches.

A Franchise That Refuses to Slow Down

Sam Raimi launched this whole nightmare 45 years ago with the original The Evil Dead in 1981 — five friends, a cabin in the woods, and the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis unleashing hell. Evil Dead II followed in 1987, Army of Darkness in 1992, and Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams eventually got his own TV run with Ash vs. Evil Dead on Starz, which ran for three seasons. Then, in a genuinely smart move, the franchise pivoted to standalone anthology-style films — no Ash, no cabin, just the Deadites dropped into new settings and new nightmares.

That bet paid off. Evil Dead Rise, Lee Cronin’s 2023 high-rise apartment horror, grossed $147 million worldwide on a budget well under $20 million. It proved that audiences didn’t need Ash to show up — they just needed the Necronomicon and something they care about to be destroyed.

Evil Dead Burn is the third standalone entry and the sixth film in the franchise overall. Vaniček co-wrote the screenplay with Florent Bernard and has said he intended to bring a French sensibility to the material. Raimi and Rob Tapert produce under the Ghost House Pictures banner, with Bruce Campbell, Cronin, Romel Adam, and Jose Canas on board as executive producers. The film is co-financed by New Line Cinema and Sony Pictures, with Sony handling international distribution through Columbia Pictures.

Who’s in the Cast

Leading the film is Souheila Yacoub, the Swiss actress — and former rhythmic gymnast and Miss Suisse Romande — who appeared in Dune: Part Two. She’s joined by Hunter Doohan, best known as Wednesday Addams’ love interest Tyler in Wednesday and more recently from Your Honor and Daredevil: Born Again; Luciane Buchanan from The Night Agent; and Tandi Wright, who appeared in Ti West’s Pearl. Errol Shand, George Pullar, Maude Davey, and Greta Van Den Brink round out the cast — all presumably offering the Deadites plenty to work with.

Behind the camera, Vaniček is joined by director of photography Philip Lozano, production designer Nick Connor, editor Maxime Caro, and costume designer Sarah Voon.

And the franchise isn’t stopping here. Evil Dead Wrath, written and directed by Francis Galluppi (The Last Stop in Yuma County), is already in development, with a 2028 target. An animated series follow-up to Ash vs. Evil Dead is also in the works. Raimi and Campbell made clear after Evil Dead Rise that they wanted a new entry every two to three years — and so far, they’re delivering.

Evil Dead Burn opens in theaters on July 10, 2026.

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