20 Things You Didn't Know About Raising Arizona
4. The Coens Were Inspired By Sam Raimi, Who They'd Made A Terrible Film With
As Edgar Wright points out, Raising Arizona and Evil Dead II were released on the exact same day in 1987, and "are joined at the hip". The stylistic similarities are clear, as Wright also notes that the published screenplay for Raising Arizona features an introduction that points out these similarities.
The Coens and Raimi had been writing the aforementioned The Hudsucker Proxy for many years before either Raising Arizona or Evil Dead 2 were released, and Joel Coen had previously worked as an editing assistant on the original The Evil Dead.
Two years before Raising Arizona, the Coens had co-written the script for Crimewave, which Raimi directed. The film performed poorly and received negative reviews, and both Raimi and the Coens were disappointed with it. Bruce Campbell called the production "a disaster", and noted that had Raimi not already got the studio onboard to make The Evil Dead, it could have ended his directing career.
Fortunately, both Raimi and the Coens went on to make iconic films, with Crimewave directly influencing the making of Evil Dead II and, in a roundabout way, Raising Arizona too.