Well, I guess Sam Raimi wasn't kidding when he said that a third installment of The Grudge was in the works. Days after Monika gave us the heads up on the sequel, Shock Till You Drop is reporting that Toby Wilkins has been hired to direct the third part of the horror series. Wilkins is a visual effects artist who worked on the Grudge 2 tie-ins, Tales of the Grudge (kind of a lame title, so I can only hope that Raimi and company can come up with something a little better than that). Raimi has been relatively quiet on the details of the story, but if a director has been chosen it would appear that the project is well underway.

Based off the 2003 *Korean film Ju-on, the first North American Grudge film was released in 2004 with Sarah Michelle Gellar as the unlucky recipient of a supernatural curse. A sequel was released in 2005, to little fanfare, so you can't help but question the decision to make yet another one. There were four films in the original Korean series, all directed by Takashi Shimizu. Surprisingly, Shimizu will not be returning for the latest film, which seems like a smart move on his part. If you take a look at what most fans thought of the last two films, a third installment will likely fair even worse. Raimi's Ghost House Productions will be in charge of the film, but only after he has finished producing Drag Me to Hell with Jeff Lynch. Wilkins is set to start work on Grudge as soon as he wraps up on his other horror thriller, Splinter. The Grudge 3 is tentatively set to begin shooting January 2008.

*Correction: Japanese

So I just alerted you to all the big Raimi chatter -- the Spider-Man 4 updates, the possibility of him taking on The Hobbit, and of course, the never-ending rumors about another Evil Dead movie. But MTV really hit paydirt with this interview, and has a blog post up to show all the goodies that they couldn't fit in their main piece. There's some grudge, a new project, and a very old one.

First up, the news that isn't quite as awesome: In case you haven't gotten enough with The Grudge and The Grudge 2, Raimi will be producing yet another. It's currently being written, and he's not talking about the plot until the script is done. Normally, I'd think this would be a good idea, but does it really matter with this series? I found The Grudge to be one of the least scary movies I have seen in a long time. And looking at the ratings for both on IMDb, I don't think I'm the only one. How low will the ratings get before he stops producing them? Gah!

In better news, he's got a new low-budget film on the way, but unfortunately, he's only producing -- his Second Unit guy on Spider-Man, Jeff Lynch, is taking the helm. Raimi says that it's called Drag Me to Hell, and "it's the story of a curse. Real bad things happen." What would be really awesome -- they combine these two upcoming features into: The Grudge Gets Dragged into Hell and is Never Seen Again! (And no, I don't mean one of those faux "Final Friday" things.)

Finally, Sam Raimi wants to go under the sea. You might remember when the word first came out that he was getting involved in a remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Raimi says it's a "really fine" screenplay, and they're currently looking for the right director, but why not Raimi himself? Especially if he probably won't helm The Hobbit, and might not tackle Spidey again? He says: "I'm a big fan of the first book, as well as the Disney movie that was made many years later in the 1950s. It's screaming for a reinterpretation, because as great as the other picture was, it was 50 years ago now." Put that fandom to use, Raimi! I'd hate to see Leagues suffer the same fate as some other recent action remakes.