Eli Roth produces disaster horror and a killer clown

While we’re still waiting for splatmaster Eli Roth to expand his GRINDHOUSE trailer THANKSGIVING to feature length and make his sci-fi epic ENDANGERED SPECIES, he’s been busy behind the scenes, and not just killing/being killed in movies like INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS and PIRANHA 3D.

The HOSTEL director is producing a pair of new movies, the first of which is CLOWN, which emerged from a fake trailer that used his name without his knowledge or consent (check it below).

CLOWN, from commercial/music vid director Jon Watts and writer Christopher D. Ford, follows the story of a loving father who dons a clown outfit and make-up to perform at his son’s sixth birthday, only to later discover the costume – red nose and wig included – will not come off, and his own personality changing in horrific fashion. To break the curse of the evil outfit, the father must make grim choices with his own family facing danger.

“I was blown away when I saw that CLOWN trailer,” Roth said. “Everyone thought it was real, or that I had at least made a fake trailer. I called the guys right away and their first response was ‘Thank you for not suing us!’ I said ‘Sue you? Let’s make this into a real film!’ They are incredibly talented, smart guys ready to make their feature debut.”

Roth is also producing AFTERSHOCK, a “high-octane horror-thriller set during the aftermath of the February 27, 2010 Chilean earthquake.” Roth is writing it with Latin-American filmmakers Nicolás López and Guillermo Amoedo, with López set to direct. López, who hails from Chile, recently directed the Spanish-language hit FUCK MY LIFE or FML (“Que Pena Tu Vida”). Roth and Lopez wanted to make something “with the intensity of a film like [REC].”