Francis Galluppi Tapped To Write & Direct New ‘Evil Dead’ Movie

EXCLUSIVE: Francis Galluppi (The Last Stop in Yuma County) has been tapped to write and direct a new Evil Dead movie for Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert’s Ghost House Pictures, sources tell Deadline.

The project is described only as an original story that Galluppi developed and brought to Raimi and team. No word on a plot or who all will be producing, as it’s early days here.

In a statement to Deadline, Rami did tell us, “Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence. He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

Evil Dead is, of course, Raimi’s horror franchise 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’s Ash vs. Evil Dead and a number of other projects. 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 launching at SXSW.

At present, Galluppi’s Evil Dead film is one of two in the works. Earlier this year, Ghost House tapped Sébastien Vaniček(Infested) to co-write and direct a new spin-off for the franchise, as we were also first to report.

Galluppi’s debut feature, crime thriller The Last Stop In Yuma County, follows a traveling salesman who, while stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop, is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty — or cold, hard steel — to protect their bloodstained fortune. Pic premiered at Fantastic Fest and will be released by Well Go USA Entertainment on May 10th.

In addition to a number of award-winning shorts, like High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project, the up-and-coming genre filmmaker has previously been tapped to helm multiple music videos for the L.A.-based indie rock band Mt. Joy.

Galluppi is repped by UTA and Anonymous Content.