The trades have finally started to report on Sam Raimi’s “Send Help,” a project, I had written about way back in October 2023. It’s set to be Raimi’s next directorial effort.
Raimi, a highly influential genre filmmaker, has only directed two movies in the last 10 years, neither of which were really in his wheelhouse. As it stands, his last true horror film was 2009’s deliciously twisted “Drag Me To Hell.”
“Send Help,” originally at Columbia Pictures, has now moved to 20th Century Studios, and is being billed as Raimi’s return to the horror genre. The film had previously been announced as an “untitled horror project” in 2019 and was described at the time as “Misery” meets “Cast Away”.
Last year, Sandra Bullock was in talks to star, but I’m not sure what’s happened since then. Maybe she’s still interested in taking part. We’ll surely get more details very soon.
Here’s the synopsis (via Daniel Richtman):
The film is a comedy-adventure horror about Linda, a female employee, and her irritating boss, Bradley. On a business flight, their plane crashes on an island with only the two of them making it out alive. Linda has serious survival skills, which means she's Bradley’s only hope to stay alive.
The first draft of the script, written by Mark Swift and Damian Shannon, who penned the Friday the 13th reboot, had already been written. However, some good news, it has been rewritten by ‘A Quiet Place’ duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods.
Raimi’s last film was the mixed reviewed “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” Raimi only came on board after original director Scott Derrickson parted ways with Marvel due to “creative differences.” The script had been rewritten many times up to that point. An actor in the film claimed the script had 33 rewrites.
Regardless, Raimi has had a strong filmmaking career, with his signature style copied by many — I absolutely love “Army of Darkness,” “Evil Dead II,” “A Simple Plan,” “Darkman,” “Drag Me To Hell,” and “Spider-Man 2.”
Still no distributor for "Bucking Fastard," "Alpha Gang," "The Last Photograph," "Closing Night," and "The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd." The issue seems to be quality more than a lack of willingness to buy.