Sébastien Vaniček Tapped To Helm ‘Evil Dead’ Spin-Off As He Signs With CAA

EXCLUSIVE: After signing rising filmmaker Sébastien Vaniček, CAA has helped him win a coveted assignment, as the co-writer and director of a new spin-off of the Evil Dead franchise for Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert’s Ghost House Pictures.

Details as to the film’s plot are under wraps. The Evil Dead is of course the horror comedy franchise created by Raimi, going back to 1981’s same-name film starring Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams, a combatant of various supernatural entities. That pic grew into a trilogy, also spurring the creation of Starz TV series Ash vs. Evil Dead and a number of other projects over the years. The most recent, standalone film Evil Dead Rise from writer-director Lee Cronin, grossed more than $147M worldwide last year when it hit theaters via Warner Bros, after world premiering at SXSW.

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Vaniček made his feature directorial debut last year with Infested (Vermines), a horror pic first introduced as part of the Critics’ Week sidebar at the Venice Film Festival. Watching as the residents of a rundown French apartment building battle against an army of deadly, rapidly reproducing spiders, 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.

Other credits for Vaniček include the shorts Crocs, Mayday, and 299 792 458 M/S. He continues to be represented by Carla Zeller and Elsa Huisman at Studio 112, the French management company that works with top European artists including directors’ collective La Horde, contemporary artist Claire Tabouret, and Les Misérables helmer Ladj Ly.

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