New Lawsuit Over Evil Dead 4

In an interesting bit of legal news, it has been revealed that Sam Raimi's Renaissance Pictures has filed a lawsuit to prevent Award Pictures from moving forward on Evil Dead 4. Renaissance Pictures was created by Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell to make the original Evil Dead films and they are suing Award Pictures, who wants to make their own Evil Dead sequel.

Award Pictures claims that because Sam Raimi said he would never do a sequel, the trademark has been abandoned. They want to move forward with their own Evil Dead project, titled Evil Dead 4: Consequences. However, keep in mind that Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi would obviously not be involved in this project.

Renaissance Pictures sued Award Pictures, saying that the Evil Dead name has been alive and well in merchandise, video games, and comic books: "As a result of Renaissance's use of the Evil Dead mark and the cult success of the films and related products, the Evil Dead mark has acquired enormous value, has become famous among the relevant consuming public and motion picture trade and is recognized as identifying and distinguishing Renaissance exclusively and uniquely as the source of goods sold and services provided under the Evil Dead mark."

It seems doubtful that Awards Pictures will get anywhere with this fight, but we'll keep readers posted. The really interesting item for us is that the THR article noted that the ".... potential coming film [From Award Pictures] allegedly is interfering with Raimi's plan to make his own sequel for Sony Pictures and FilmDistrict."

While it seems unlikely we'll get Evil Dead 4 after the new Evil Dead remake, it makes us hopeful that we haven't seen the last of Bruce Campbell as Ash.