Will the ‘Evil Dead’ Rise Again? Sam Raimi Says: ‘Yes’

Published by Larry Carroll

Sure, there are always plenty of guys in Spider-Man and Venom tights every year, practicing their acrobatics in the hallways at San Diego’s Comic-Con. But whenever A-list director Sam Raimi comes to the annual convention, one costume impresses him more than any other.

“There’s guys dressed up as Ash!” he marveled, making reference to the star character from the movies that put him on Hollywood’s radar more than twenty-five years ago. “That’s great. Wow. I’m honored that they’re still imitating Bruce’s character from the “Evil Dead” movies.”

With that in mind, we had to press Raimi on the one question every one of those die-hards would want to ask. If Sam were a betting man, would he place his money on the notion that we’ll someday see one more “Evil Dead” film?

“Yes,” he answered simply. Almost so simply, in fact, that I nearly dropped the microphone.

“For the few weirdoes that see the ‘Evil Dead’ movies - and it’s not a very big crowd if you ever look at those numbers, but they’re very dedicated,” he laughed. “I’d love to make another ‘Evil Dead’ picture.”

Raimi was in town this year showing some truly horrifying footage from “Drag Me to Hell,” a May 2009 film that many are already touting as the director’s return to those twisted movies he made out in the woods with geek god Campbell all those years ago. But what, exactly, will it take for Sam to once again blow the dust off the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis?

“If the financing ever fell in place right,” Raimi explained, making it sound like movement could be coming sooner rather than later. “But first, I’d have to work on the script with my brother [Ivan Raimi]. And that’s something I’m hoping to find the time to do.”

Link : http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/07/28/will-the-evil-dead-rise-again-sam-raimi-says-yes/

Bhutto's widower wins presidency

Mr Zardari is seen as pro-Western

Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, has won a sweeping victory in Pakistan's presidential election.

The election was called after Pervez Musharraf resigned rather than risk being impeached.

Mr Zardari faces severe economic problems and a rampant Islamist insurgency that are threatening Pakistan's stability.

During the voting a bomb killed at least 15 people near Peshawar city.

The president is elected by secret ballots in the national and four provincial assemblies.

Mr Zardari won 481 votes out of 702, far more than the 352 votes that would have guaranteed him victory, leaving his two rivals trailing far behind.

In Sindh province, Mr Zardari won all 65 votes. In North West Frontier Province (NWFP) he got 56 out of the 65 votes. In Balochistan province he won 59 of the 65 votes.

By contrast he only won 22 out of 65 seats in Punjab province, the heartland of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's PML-N party.

The two daughters of Mr Zardari and Ms Bhutto hugged friends in delight in the gallery of the national assembly as the results became clear. Members of Mr Zardari's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) declared the result to be a "victory for democracy".

Controversy

Mr Zardari was thrust into the centre of political power by the killing of Ms Bhutto last December after which he became head of the PPP.

WHO VOTES FOR PRESIDENT? Total votes: 702 National Assembly 342 votes Senate 100 votes Four provincial assemblies 65 votes each Winner needs simple majority of votes What Pakistanis think 'Master plan' to save Pakistan Q&A: Presidential poll Send us your comments

The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says that in recent months Mr Zardari has shown skill by forging a large coalition and using it to peacefully unseat President Musharraf.

Mr Zardari is one of Pakistan's most controversial politicians.

For years he has been hounded by allegations of massive corruption - although he has never been convicted.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took his PML-N party out of the governing coalition last week, accusing Mr Zardari of breaking key promises.

Many in Pakistan fear the country is facing a return to an old-style politics of confrontation at a time when urgent action is needed to improve the economy and deal with a raging Islamist insurgency.

Juggling demands

Mr Zardari is seen as pro-Western and supportive of Washington's self-declared war on terror. He will have to juggle the demands of the United States, Pakistan's powerful army, and strong anti-American sentiment in the country.

Nawaz Sharif's coalition with Mr Zardari did not last long

Our correspondent says Mr Musharraf tried to do that and failed. She adds that Pakistanis hope that Asif Zardari will have more success, but they see little in his past to encourage them.

The fortunes of the Bhutto-Zardari family have fluctuated dramatically.

Mr Zardari spent years in prison while Gen Musharraf ruled Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated at an election rally in December. Her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was hanged during the military dictatorship of President Ziaul Haq.

A further reminder of the dangers of public life in Pakistan came on Wednesday when gunmen attacked the motorcade of the prime minister. Two bullets hit his car, although he was not in it at the time officials say.

The other candidates for the presidency were Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui, a former judge who had the backing of Mr Sharif, and Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who was nominated by the PML-Q party that supported Mr Musharraf.

In the Islamabad parliament, members of the upper house, the Senate, were due to vote first, followed by the lower house.

Pakistan's four provincial assemblies of Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and the NWFP had a similar schedule.

However, voting in the NWFP capital, Peshawar, was delayed when a 5.6 magnitude earthquake hit the area and neighbouring Afghanistan, prompting deputies to flee the assembly building.

The provincial assemblies are given equal weighting with 65 votes each. In the three assemblies which do not have 65 deputies, the value of each deputy's vote is adjusted by a mathematical formula.

There is only one round of voting and whoever has most of the 702 votes wins.

Link : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7600917.stm

New Orleans celeb faction quiet as Gustav sputters

By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, AP Music Writer

When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans three years ago, celebrities reacted with a mix of grief, outrage and generosity. All-star telethons raised millions for storm victims, Kanye West and others derided the government's response — even Sean Penn went to the region to personally assist in rescue efforts.

Many celebrities who live in or hail from the area, from John Goodman to Brett Favre, took a deep and personal interest in helping relief efforts. Ellen DeGeneres, a New Orleans native whose elderly aunt, cousins and friends had their Gulf Coast homes destroyed, taped an episode of her show dedicated to the devastation.

With Hurricane Gustav only delivering a glancing blow to the region at Category 2 strength instead of the wallop that was predicated, it was still unclear Monday what the celebrity response would be in its wake. Though Gustav was still battering the area with rain and high winds on Monday night, there was no damage or deaths on the scale of Katrina.

Jerry Lewis' annual Labor Day telethon raised a record $65 million for the Muscular Dystrophy Association — but also made a pitch for those inconvenienced by Hurricane Gustav. This year's 22-hour telethon added a special plea for MDA-registered families forced to leave their homes because of the hurricane.

Efforts to reach stars from the area, such as rapper Lil Wayne, jazz star and actor Harry Connick Jr. and jazz great Wynton Marsalis — were unsuccessful on Monday, when most offices were closed due to the Labor Day holiday.

Representatives for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who lived in New Orleans for about a year after Katrina struck, also did not return messages. The couple and their famously expanding brood stayed in the city while Pitt was filming "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" last and were active in raising funds and other projects to rebuild the city.

West famously chastised President Bush during a national telethon to raise funds after Katrina struck by saying, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." But on his blog today, his postings centered around new music from Lupe Fiasco and a new style of watch rather than Gustav.

Link : http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080902/ap_en_tv/gustav_celebs

Ramadan Mubarak!

Wishing all the my Muslim Fellows around the World a Prosperous and Sacred Month of Ramadan...!

Ramadan Mubarak!

Mars team ponders whether lander sees ice or sa

By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer

LOS ANGELES - Is the white stuff in the Martian soil ice or salt? That's the question bedeviling scientists in the three weeks since the Phoenix lander began digging into Mars' north pole region to study whether the arctic could be habitable.

Shallow trenches excavated by the lander's backhoe-like robotic arm have turned up specks and at times even stripes of mysterious white material mixed in with the clumpy, reddish dirt.

Phoenix merged two previously dug trenches over the weekend into a single pit measuring a little over a foot long and 3 inches deep. The new trench was excavated at the edge of a polygon-shaped pattern in the ground that may have been formed by the seasonal melting of underground ice.

New photos showed the exposed bright substance present only in the top part of the trench, suggesting it's not uniform throughout the excavation site. Phoenix will take images of the trench dubbed "Dodo-Goldilocks" over the next few days to record any changes. If it's ice, scientists expect it to sublimate — or go from solid to gas, bypassing the liquid stage — when exposed to the sun because of the planet's frigid temperatures and low atmospheric pressure.

"We think it's ice. But again, until we can see it disappear ... we're not guaranteed yet," mission scientist Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis said Monday.

Even if it's not ice, the discovery of salt would also be significant because it's normally formed when water evaporates in the soil.

Preliminary results from a bake-and-sniff experiment at low temperatures failed to turn up any trace of water or ice in the scoopful of soil that was delivered to the lander's test oven last week. Scientists planned to heat the soil again this week to up to 1,800 degrees, said William Boynton of the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Phoenix landed in the Martian arctic plains on May 25 on a three-month, $420 million mission to study whether the polar environment could be favorable for primitive life to emerge. The lander's main job is to dig into an ice layer believed to exist a few inches from the surface.

The project is led by the University of Arizona and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The lander was built by Lockheed Martin Corp.

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On the Net:

Phoenix Mars: http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/index.php