There’s still no telling when grue-hound Eli Roth will step behind the camera to direct, but he’s certainly keeping his producorial role intact…
Deadline has it that Roth has inked a deal with Cross Creek Pictures and Vertebra Films to usher in two new horror flicks, one called CLOWN…the other AFTERSHOCK. Roth will creatively oversee as well as produce, the two aforementioned companies will finance entirely.
Word is Jon Watts (THE SCARIEST SHOW ON TELEVISION) will direct CLOWN, doing so from a script he’ll co-author with Christopher D. Ford (“Atom TV”). The project was born, much like MACHETE or Roth’s own THANKSGIVING (if that does ever happen), after drawing interest from a faux-trailer they made. As far as the story is concerned, it centers on a father who, after a clown-for-hire fails to show up for his son’s sixth birthday, straps on an unknowingly evil clown uniform that turns the man into a homicidal maniac. KILLER KLOWNS like mothaf*ker!
Here’s what Roth told Deadline:
“I loved how ballsy they were, issuing a trailer that said, ‘From the Master of Horror, Eli Roth.’ Some people thought I’d made the movie, or that it was another fake Grindhouse trailer. The first thing they said was, ‘Thank you for not suing us, but I told them, ‘This is Hollywood, and while it’s tradition that every movie eventually ends up in a lawsuit, you only sue when you are fighting over profits. It’s no fun to sue before there’s any money.’ But I really felt these guys deserved a shot, and that people are truly freaked out by evil clowns. It’s new territory to make this a version of The Fly, where this guy can feel himself changing, blacking out only to find blood all over his clown suit. You’re sympathetic toward a monster until the monster actually takes over.”
Also in the works is AFTERSHOCK, which relives the horrors of the 8.8 Chilean earthquake of 2010…a catastrophe that claimed the lives over 480 people. Word is Chilean filmmaker Nicolas Lopez (SANTOS) will direct from a script by Guillermo Amoedo. The film will chronicle several characters dealing with the struggle of the quakes’ aftermath. Here’s what Roth had to say about the project:
“I’d told him (Lopez) to let me know when he was ready to make an English language film and then he told me about this earthquake, which turned the country into a shaking amusement park ride. There was no electricity or phones, all hell broke loose and everybody was communicating on their iPhones, which became their flashlights. We thought of writing a supernatural element, but his description of the buildings and towns leveled, anarchy and looters being shot from helicopters, was terrifying enough.”
Roth’s INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS co-star, Melanie Laurent!
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