We have an update on our story from May in which Sam Raimi's Renaissance Pictures was suing Award Pictures to block an unauthorized Evil Dead sequel. Award Pictures attempted to move forward with their own Evil Dead project, titled Evil Dead 4: Consequences, claiming that Sam Raimi abandoned the trademark.
In a bit of luck for Raimi that prevented this from dragging on, THR reports that Award Pictures failed to respond in court and a judge ordered "a default judgment that permanently enjoins Award Pictures from using the "Evil Dead" trademark or using marketing materials that might confuse the public into believing that Award has rights to the title."
Of course, Award Pictures has the ability to fight the decision and claim they will, stating that their reason for not responding to the lawsuit was a lack of funds to hire legal representation:
"Award said that paying lawyers wouldn't be a problem if Renaissance hadn't interfered wtih Evil Dead 4: Consequences. Until then, MacCrae's company purportedly had a multi-million dollar financing deal with Anchor Bay, which was 'destroyed' by 'fraudulent claims of ownership of the rights to The Evil Dead.' "
To be clear, Bruce Campbell was not involved in the making of this film and this was a separate project that did not include anyone who was creatively involved in the original Evil Dead movies. If Award Pictures was unable to raise the funds to fight this in court the first time around, it seems likely that this is last we've heard on this matter. We don't plan to report on this again, unless Award Pictures fights the decision and the court sides with them.
For those who are not aware, an official Evil Dead remake recently wrapped up filming and will be released early next year. Hear what Bruce Campbell has to say about it at: http://dailydead.com/bruce-campbell-talks-evil-dead-remake-3/
