Sam Raimi is Dragged Back to Low-Budget Horror, and Maybe to The Hobbit?

Sam Raimi, who was a cult favorite for his Evil Dead series before he became the hot-commodity director of the Spider-Man films, is heading back to supernatural thriller land with Drag Me to Hell, a script he wrote with his brother Ivan, according to Variety.

The morality tale about the unwitting recipient of a supernatural curse will go into production early next year. It will be financed through Ghost House, a joint venture Raimi and Rob Tapert formed several years ago with Mandate Pictures.

Raimi and Tapert will produce with Grant Curtis, and Josh Donen will exec produce with Mandate’s Nathan Kahane and Joe Drake.

Tapert said the Raimis penned the script well before the formation of Ghost House. It was originally written under the title “The Curse” and completed right after the siblings collaborated on 1992’s “Army of Darkness,” which Sam Raimi directed.

“Sam calls it a ’spook-a-blast,’ a wild ride with all the chills and spills that ‘Evil Dead’ delivered, without relying on the excessive violence of that film,” Tapert said. “When one has done three very expensive movies, they get used to eating caviar. Sam will have to ponder what it means to come down from the mountaintop for a moment.”

This part, however, is interesting.

After “Drag Me to Hell,” Raimi is expected to go right back up the mountaintop and take the helm of “The Hobbit” films for New Line and MGM now that Peter Jackson has made it clear he won’t direct.

Sam Raimi’s “The Hobbit.” This would seem to make it impossible for him to direct Spider-Man 4, but come on. Sam Raimi’s The Hobbit!.