The last time we reported on what Eli Roth's next projects would be, he revealed that they are a full-length version of his fake Thanksgiving trailer from Grindhouse and a mysterious, untitled big-budget sci-fi movie. He stated that Thanksgiving would be a fairly low-budgeted movie ($15 million at most) and that it would be, "the sickest, bloodiest, most violent slasher movie." What was more interesting though, is that he said he wanted to shoot it in three weeks at the end of a big-budget shoot for a sci-fi movie that he was so secretive about that he couldn't/wouldn't even give us the name of it.

Hmmm, intriguing...

However, in speaking with Empire recently, Roth spoke about his upcoming two projects and revealed some more information. He discussed his plans for the full-length feature based on the hilarious Thanksgiving trailer that we saw with Grindhouse, but more importantly, he revealed the name of his mysterious, secretive sci-fi movie:

"There's a science fiction movie, and I definitely wanna make Thanksgiving. I want to do a sci-fi movie, like, a $60m movie - something in that budget range - where I can really do lots of mass destruction and really destroy lots of sh**!... [It's called] Endangered Species... that's the first time I've uttered those two words."

Endangered Species, huh? Again, sounds intriguing...

As I said in my last post about Roth's next two projects, I never would have pegged him to make any kind of sci-fi movie - Never mind one with such a size of budget (it's no $200 million - *cough* Avatar! *cough* but it's big enough, certainly for a director who's never made a movie in the genre before).

Thanksgiving

Unfortunately, Roth didn't speak about what Endangered Species will be about (I know, folks, I'm sad, too), but as mentioned he talked a bit more about his plan for the Thanksgiving movie:

"...I want to tack on three weeks at the end of it [Endangered Species] - like, 18 days. The way I did Nation's Pride [the film-within-a-film from Inglourious Basterds], that's how I want to shoot Thanksgiving. I just want to go, go, go. Get as much footage, and as many kills as possible, and not be self-conscious. Because when you're moving at that speed, you're not thinking, you're just feeling and you're going on instinct. And that's where the best stuff comes from. There's an energy to that Grindhouse trailer for Thanksgiving that, for me caught the spirit of the movie. And I was like, 'What if I did this for three weeks?' No pretensions. Just, 'F**k it. Let's make a fifth movie, do it fast, bang it out and make it great.' I mean, still take it seriously, as a real movie, but just do it in 18 days and see what the hell happens when I really push myself."

If you haven't seen Grindhouse and the Thanksgiving spoof trailer that was a part of it, you are seriously missing out. If you want, you can check out the trailer over at YouTube.

Although I'm not a fan of Roth as a filmmaker (his Hostel movies are a complete waste of time, and Cabin Fever ain't far behind them), I still admit to loving his Thanksgiving trailer. Tied with Machete for the best of the bunch (it was one of only two that could work as a full-length feature film - the other being the aforementioned Machete), it was funny, gross, and above all, extremely entertaining. I look forward to seeing if Roth makes use of the potential that the fake trailer has (as I do with Robert Rodriguez with his full version of Machete).

Endangered Species I can't say much about because all we have is the name and some possible angles of it being like Transformers and Cloverfield (Roth's words, not mine). However, I'm willing to give Roth the benefit of the doubt as he forays into the sci-fi genre that is unknown to him. I'm always willing to be proven wrong about a filmmaker (Thanksgiving put him firmly on the way).

What do you think of Eli Roth's next two projects: Thanksgiving and Endangered Species?

Source: Empire