Eli Roth is set to play a baseball bat-swinging Nazi hunter in his BFF Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards according to Variety. Tarantino was trying to get both Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio to star in the movie, but the first confirmed role goes to Eli Roth as Sgt. Donnie Donowitz.
The rest of the cast which might include Brad should be announced shortly and production is set to begin this fall in Europe. Sounds like Tarantino might have another Oscar nominated movie on his hands, wouldn't it be nice if Eli got a nom for his part in the movie!
Mazel tov to the nice Jewish boy Eli Roth who is playing a Nazi hunter. His parents must be so proud!
On June 10th, this year, Germany passed new, stricter censorship laws, banning movies they deem too violent. Hostel 2 had been censored in Germany during its theatrical release (the censors felt the comical scene of kids playing soccer with head at the end was too violent – I'm not kidding) so the horror fans there felt cheated, and were waiting for the unrated DVD. The German fans have always been incredibly supportive of me, and it was very frustrating for all of us that even the R rated version of Hostel 2 could not be seen. On June 10th, 2008, the uncut DVD was officially listed as illegal in Germany. I got several reports of police in Munich raiding video stores and pulling the DVD off the shelves. Let me repeat that: three weeks ago, German police were going into video stores and pulling Hostel 2 off the shelves because the government censored it. This is disturbing on many, many levels. When a government censors any creative work like this, it sends a very dangerous message that the violence in these movies is real. We're talking about a DVD – where you not only can hear me explaining how we did every kill in the film, but you can then watch a behind-the-scenes special showing us applying the make up to the actors during the scene. When people ask me "how could you kill all those people?" I have to explain to them that we didn't kill anybody – that there is no actual violence in my films, it is simply a representation of violence. But what's really dangerous is that this is the beginning of the end of free expression for any artist who wants to make a film in Germany, or show their work there. Once the government starts with the horror movies, who's next? Someone's deciding what is decent and what is not, and politicians never stick up for violent work, because that makes them look like they are publicly endorsing actual violence. They will vote to go to war and actually kill people to 'defend freedom', but vote against allowing violent movies. Will they also ban Pasolini's anti-facism masterpiece "Salo?" Will they start censoring paintings they deem too violent? Will they ban the work of Cormack McCarthy – our most celebrated author – because it's too violent? Did they read "The Road" or "Blood Meridian?" What about those amazing German DVD labels (who I don't want to mention here so as not to raise any red flags) who put out those rare Italian films from the 70's that I can't find anywhere else? And most importantly, what about the fans, who now risk going to jail simply for purchasing a DVD – something everyone else in the world (except New Zealand and Singapore, where I was also banned) can watch?
I hear people complain about the MPAA all the time, and I just wish they could be in my shoes for a day. The MPAA is not a government organization, they are an organization hired by the studios to self-police. They actually listen to you – you can have a discussion with them – and they work with you to protect the integrity of your film within the boundaries of a rating we all created specifically to avoid government interference. We can thank the MPAA for allowing us to have all the horror movies we have today in cinemas – they are our allies. And even if your film gets trimmed your film has an afterlife on the unrated Blu Ray. But in Germany the fans are not so lucky anymore. They are censored by their government, and the police will arrest you for buying or selling a DVD they feel is too dangerous for the public to see. I understand the German sensitivity to violence. And it is no secret there are numerous references to the holocaust in both "Hostel" films (bodies being incinerated at a factory of death, the torturer speaking German, Paxton speaking German to show he speaks the same language as his torturer, etc.) so perhaps the censorship is a little personal. But I have always said my films do not inspire violence, but rather discussions about violence, and I suppose if that comes from this then my objective has been achieved. I went to Germany for all of my films and had an amazing time with the fans as well as the journalists – they were all really cool, and really got it. But I do feel these politicians completely missed the point of both films and are treating them as if I truly killed people, when it in fact this act of censorship is far more dangerous than anything I could ever do in a movie. The movie's pretend, but this, unfortunately, is very real.
Eli Roth just blogged this about the censorship going on in Germany and I had to share what he wrote with y'all. As a lover of horror movies, I would be horrified to see them go away. And what is deemed too violent in their eyes? What might deemed too violent for one person, might be OK to someone else? What are they going to ban next Schindler's List, Life is Beautiful or anything they have a problem with it until it is country full of a G-Rated movies? Back in the '70s they arrested Harry Reems and others here in The States for their parts in a movie called Deep Throat, (things I learned by watching Swingtown on CBS) could you imagine going to back time where our rights to see what we wanted is taken away from us? I could not, and I hope no other country takes that stance. So go out and rent a horror movie like Hostel 2 or a porno movie like Deep Throat and take a minute to appreciate that you are able to watch what you want when you want!
Can we stop talking about this guy! I never even heard his name till last week when he made threats and rants. The guy is a fucking idiot, making threats to me, Clooney, Eli Roth, says he has a doctorate – but uses the word "retard" in his vocabulary, come on. When you look at his videos, what is interesting are the backgrounds. I guess his low rent offices, with 15 year old 3/4 machines, archaic computers, this is just some dumb chump trying to get some fame when he has none, so he has to make Youtube lame quality anger rants. Guy just want attention because he can't get any for the so called movies he makes. Nothing sadder when he had his screening in LA to an over half empty movie house.
He is a troubled soul – let's just waste time on talking about him please.
M
I am kind of bummed that the Michael Bay and Uwe Boll will not be going at it because looks like Michael Bay would have really kicked his a$$! Now that Michael Bay has said no, I wonder if Uwe will challenge Eli Roth to a fight because I want to see Eli show him who is boss! BTW hats off to Michael Bay on his response, I finally liked something he did!!!
Eli Roth is going soft with his next movie according to Reuters. He is working on a PG-13 Sci-Fi flick inspired by the recent blockbusters Transformers and Cloverfield.
"This will be my first big-budget, PG-13, mass-destruction movie," he said backstage at the music industry's NME Awards in Los Angeles. "I went total chaos and pandemonium."
"I feel like I pushed the violence in R movies about as far as I can push it. I feel like I'm bled out. I wanna switch it up," said the 36-year-old protege of Quentin Tarantino.
"Everyone I know has been saying 'When are you gonna do a movie my kids can see?' And finally, I'm gonna make a movie that 13-year-old kids can see."
But for us fans of his R rated movies, don't worry there will be extras on the DVD for us to enjoy! I can't wait to see what he does with the movie!
Back to the NME Awards he was the first presenter at their inaugural American Awards show last night, so I guess you can say he popped their cherry and everyone else got his sloppy seconds. BTW he was wearing a Prada suit and Ingmar Berman Shirt from CineFile Video!
Eli Roth is doing a full length movie that will only contains trailers called Trailer Trash! He has said in several interviews that he was inspired to do this movie after working on the Thanksgiving trailer for Grindhouse. If these trailers are as good as Thanksgiving, I can’t wait to see this movie when it comes out!!! I mean how many movies kill a stripping cheerleader jumping on a “tramp”oline with a knife when she sit jumps on it, I can’t think of any others!!! Plus what about when the killer was jealous that Eli was getting head, so he took Eli’s? Way hot!!!
Happy Birthday Eli Roth!!!
