Editing Evil Dead II (section)

===Development===
The concept of a [[sequel]] to ''The Evil Dead'' was discussed during location shooting on the first film. [[Irvin Shapiro]], the film's publicist, pushed writer/director [[Sam Raimi]] to devise a premise for such a film. Working with screenwriter [[Sheldon Lettich]], Raimi settled on a story in which Ash was sucked through a [[time portal]] to the [[Middle Ages]], where he would encounter more [[deadites]]. Shapiro was enticed by the concept, and took out advertisements in trade magazines to promote the project, then titled ''Evil Dead II: Evil Dead and the Army of Darkness'', in May 1984. After [[Universal Pictures]] and [[20th Century Fox]] passed on it, the sequel was shelved in favor of Raimi's next film, ''[[Crimewave]]'' (1985), a [[comedy film|comedy]]/[[crime film]] co-written with [[Coen brothers|Joel and Ethan Coen]].<ref name="BookDead">{{cite web|url=http://www.bookofthedead.ws/website/evil_dead_2_production.html|title=Evil Dead II - Production|publisher=Book of the Dead|access-date=March 26, 2020|archive-date=March 26, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200326143945/http://www.bookofthedead.ws/website/evil_dead_2_production.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

After ''Crimewave'' was released to critical and audience disinterest, Raimi and his partners at Renaissance Pictures, producer [[Robert Tapert]] and actor/co-producer [[Bruce Campbell]], took Shapiro up on his sequel offer, knowing that another flop would further stall their already-lagging careers. Development of ''Evil Dead II'' initially began in collaboration with [[ELP Communications|Embassy Pictures]], which had co-financed and distributed ''Crimewave'', but the filmmakers eventually felt that they were being stalled after five months' pre-production work, and began conducting interviews with prospective cast and crew members.<ref name="BookDead" /> Around this time, producer [[Dino De Laurentiis]], the owner of production and distribution company [[De Laurentiis Entertainment Group]] (DEG), asked Raimi if he would be interested in directing an adaptation of the [[Stephen King]] novel ''[[Thinner (novel)|Thinner]]''. Raimi turned down the offer, but De Laurentiis remained in touch with the young filmmaker.<ref name=companion>{{cite book|title=The Evil Dead Companion|last=Warren|first=Bill|publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]]|year=2001|isbn=9780312275013|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wBrJ3M71rUIC}}</ref>{{rp|135}}

The ''Thinner'' adaptation was part of a deal between De Laurentiis and King to produce several adaptations of King's successful [[horror fiction|horror]] novels and short stories. At the time, King was directing the first such adaptation, ''[[Maximum Overdrive]]'' (1986), based on his short story "[[Trucks (short story)|Trucks]]". He had dinner with a crew member who had been among those interviewed by Raimi and his colleagues about ''Evil Dead II'', and told King that the film was having trouble attracting funding. Upon hearing this, King, who had written a glowing review of the first film that helped it become an audience favorite at [[Cannes Film Festival|Cannes]], called De Laurentiis and asked him to fund the film.<ref name=companion/>{{rp|104}} While he was initially skeptical, De Laurentiis met with Renaissance, who highlighted the first film's extremely high revenue in the Italian market. Within twenty minutes, De Laurentiis agreed to finance ''Evil Dead II'' for $3.6 million. Raimi and Tapert had desired $4 million for the production, but De Laurentiis requested a film that was similar to its predecessor instead of their original medieval-themed proposal, which was instead used for the second sequel, ''[[Army of Darkness]]'' (1992).<ref name=companion/>{{rp|106}}