{"id":962324,"date":"2026-05-15T20:48:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/962324\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T20:48:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:48:19","slug":"sam-raimi-directing-magic-lionsgate-anthony-hopkins-original","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/962324\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Raimi directing &#8216;Magic&#8217; Lionsgate Anthony Hopkins Original"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t<strong>EXCLUSIVE<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/sam-raimi\/\" id=\"auto-tag_sam-raimi\" data-tag=\"sam-raimi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sam Raimi<\/a> has been set by <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/lionsgate\/\" id=\"auto-tag_lionsgate\" data-tag=\"lionsgate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lionsgate<\/a> to direct <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/magic\/\" id=\"auto-tag_magic\" data-tag=\"magic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Magic<\/a>, a modern adaptation of the William Goldman novel that was first turned into the 1978 film that Richard Attenborough directed and Anthony Hopkins starred in. He played a ventriloquist who finds himself controlled by his malicious puppet at a time when he has a chance to find happiness with a rekindled romance. Hopkins turned in a tour de force creepy performance that presaged his Oscar-winning work in The Silence of the Lambs years later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tRaimi, creator of the\u00a0Evil Dead\u00a0franchise and director of the landmark 2000s\u00a0Spider-Man\u00a0trilogy, already was aboard to produce the project alongside Roy Lee, producer of\u00a0It\u00a0and\u00a0Weapons. Chris Hammond and Tim Sullivan, who long have championed the project will produce alongside Raimi and Lee. Raimi Productions\u2019 Zainab Azizi will also produce. Nathan Kahane and Paul Fishkin\u00a0will executive produce alongside\u00a0Andrew Childs\u00a0for Vertigo.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe project is written by Mark Swift and Damian Shannon, reuniting with Raimi and Azizi from\u00a0Send Help\u00a0for 20th Century Studios.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tMeredith Wieck and Pavan Kalidindi are overseeing the project for Lionsgate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cSam is the dream director for this project \u2014 in fact, his coming aboard represents one of the truly great matches of director and material,\u201d said Adam Fogelson, chair of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group. \u201cThe script is fantastic, and we could not be more excited to see Sam\u2019s direction and creative vision take it to another level. We are absolutely thrilled he has chosen to direct the film.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tRaimi most recently\u00a0directed the hit\u00a0Send Help, starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O\u2019Brien, which he produced with Azizi. It topped the box office for two weeks earlier this year and grossed around $100 million worldwide. He is represented by CAA and Hansen Jacobson Teller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Sam Raimi has been set by Lionsgate to direct Magic, a modern adaptation of the William Goldman&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":962325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,77,34147,26674,135168,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-962324","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-lionsgate","11":"tag-magic","12":"tag-sam-raimi","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116580562147232278","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=962324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/962325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=962324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=962324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}