There is something very likable about Eli Roth. He seems like the type of dude I’d totally like to hang out with to watch a Football game or something like that. That being said, I’m not exactly a huge fan of his as a director. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t DISLIKE his work… I’m just not convinced either way on him. I thought Hostel was a solid little movie… but Hostel 2 was so bad it was almost unforgivable.
Now it seems that Roth is aiming his directorial career in the direction of a Sci-Fi action film to be immediately followed by a full theatrical version of his “Thanksgiving” trailer which appeared in Grindhouse a couple of years back. Movie Web gives us this:
“I don’t want to give away the title yet, because I have to make sure I own it 100%, but it’s going to be something that is really fun with lots of mass destruction,” he said. “I wanted to do something along the lines of Transformers or Cloverfield that was a little more science fiction-based, and with lots of chaos and mass destruction.”
“I don’t want to say what [the monster is] yet,” Roth added. “Once it gets set up, I will let everyone know. It is not aliens or robots or a virus – it’s a little more grounded. But when people hear it they are going to be like ‘That is going to be insane!’.”
Ok… that all sounds well and good. Even I have to admit that I’m pretty curious about what kind of project he’s got in mind. There is however one huge problem:
The last movie Roth directed bombed, and even the first Hostel didn’t make all that much money. What studio is going to ante up $80-$100 million dollars to this guy right now? I certainly wouldn’t. As a fan I think I’d dig seeing this idea of his come to life… but the harsh reality is that he’s never shown his films can pull in enough people to justify that kind of a budget.
I think he should do Thanksgiving first (I’d love to see this), have it make some serious coin… and THEN shop around his bigger idea. Just a thought. But for all I know He’s already got the money lined up. I just highly doubt it.
