Raimi had already agreed to produce Magic, setting it up at his own production company last year.
Other producers include Roy Lee, as well as Chris Hammond and Tim Sullivan. These last two people really supported the project from the start and helped develop it by finding the original rights.
The script for Magic was written by Mark Swift and Damian Shannon.
They also wrote Send Help for Raimi and have worked on other movies like Freddy vs. Jason and the remake of Friday the 13th. The script is an updated version of the 1976 novel by William Goldman, who also wrote the script for the original movie.
In Magic, Anthony Hopkins plays Corky, a magician who becomes famous with his ventriloquist dummy, Fats.
Fats is a loud and sarcastic character. Corky is offered a TV show deal but is scared to reveal his mental health struggles. He decides to go to the Catskills to reconnect with an old love, but Fats starts taking over and turns things violent.
The movie also had Ann-Margret and Burgess Meredith in it and was directed by Richard Attenborough.
Before it came out, 20th Century Fox made a TV ad that focused on just the dummy’s face, saying “Magic is fun, we’re dead.”
Raimi Productions’ Zainab Azizi is also producing.
Nathan Kahane and Paul Fishkin will be executive producers, along with Andrew Childs from Vertigo.
Meredith Wieck and Pavan Kalidindi are handling the project for Lionsgate.
Send Help, which starred Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, had a big surprise success when it opened in theaters on January 30.
It was a return to horror for Raimi and got some of his best reviews in over 15 years.
Lionsgate’s motion picture group chair Adam Fogelson said, “His coming aboard represents one of the truly great matches of director and material.”
