Something you can always count on seeing in a Rob Zombie movie are familiar faces from 1970s/'80s cinema or television. Whether he's pulling actors from unexpected places like Welcome Back, Kotter and The Brady Bunch or signing genre icons like Ken Foree, Michael Berryman, and Barbara Crampton (to name a few of the many he has worked with), Zombie loves to fill his movies with people who had hits and breakthroughs and made classics during his formative years.
Every time Zombie makes a movie, following the casting process is like watching him book what would be an awesome convention.
Zombie is currently in production on a new film, 3 FROM HELL, a sequel to HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES and THE DEVIL'S REJECTS. We already know that his wife Sheri Moon Zombie, Bill Moseley (who become a genre icon with 1986's TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2), and Sid Haig (best known, until these films, for his work in the drive-in/grindhouse era) will be reprising the roles they played in CORPSES and REJECTS. Now Zombie has provided the first bit of fresh casting news.
The announcement comes from Zombie's own Instagram account, where he revealed that Austin Stoker has joined the cast of 3 FROM HELL. Zombie also listed some of Stoker's credits, all of them from the '70s – ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13; BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES; SHEBA, BABY; AIRPORT 1975.
John Carpenter's 1976 film ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 is what Stoker is best known for. Interestingly, Zombie also recently posted an image of a prison transport vehicle on his Instagram, implying that the villains being transported within are Sheri Moon, Moseley, and Haig's characters. Stoker has experience with such things, as ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 featured a prisoner transport that didn't go as expected.
Stoker is exactly the sort of actor you expect to see show up in a Zombie film, and as a fan of the man (who was incredibly nice when I met him and had him sign the cover of my ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 DVD) I am glad that he's going to be in an attention-grabbing movie like this.
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