Grindhouse

“Grindhouse” is the newest Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez double-sized adventure into the sleazy and ghastly genre of Grind House Cinema. After a few delays, it is scheduled to come out on April 6, 2007 in the U.S. Grindhouse will be comprised of two movies, and each director, a legend in their own right, will be directing a 60 minute film. In addition, there will be an intermission packed with faux trailers, also directed by the two, and featuring their own grab bag of A-list and cult celebrities alike.

Quentin's film “Death Proof,” is looking like one part slasher film, and one part Death Race 2000 (Death Race 3000 comes out in 2008!) Besides cast members like Kurt Russel, Rosario Dawson, Sydney Tamiia Poitier and others, we know little about the story itself. The only other buzz about it is that Mickey Rourke was originally cast for Kurt Russel's part, but has remained silent about why he is no longer working on the picture.

Robert Rodriguez's film “Planet Terror,” is a blood-spattering zombie movie. This is the film we have seen the most of this far. Speculating about the trailer that was shown on SpikeTV's 2006 Scream Awards, Rose McGowan plays a stripper kidnapped by a black-ops government program that wants to replace a seductive, but agile, female operative's leg with a grenade launching M-16! Planet Terror is also sporting a host of name celebrities like Lost's Naveen Andrews, Black Eyed Pea's Fergie, Six Feet Under's Freddy Rodriguez, star of films like Pleasantville and Sin City- Marley Shelton and more.

In July of this year, Quentin, Robert and the film's female cast spoke about the film in a panel at the San Diego Comic Con. Video clips of the panel are available at Ifilm.com. Then, in October, the girls of Grind house- Rosario Dawson, Rose McGowan and Marley Shelton, all hosted the 2006 Scream Awards on Spike TV. The first trailer for Grind house appeared at the Scream Awards and chaos ensued! Shortly after the trailer leaked onto the Internet, and generated the next phase of excitement from fans, the fake Machete segment put actor Danny Trejo in the spotlight for a change. Trejo, who has a career of over twenty years and 130 roles in t.v. and movies, finally gained a few more points in cult status. Not that he needs it, he was in at least 10 films last year alone, and has a slew of other projects including a few leading roles, producing and documentaries. Not bad for an ex-con!

Since then, the only news has been Black Eyed Peas first lady Fergie joining the cast of Planet Terror, and some buzz for actor Freddy Rodriguez of Six Feet Under and Bobby, also starring in Planet Terror. Entertainment Weekly also released 5 pictures of the film. Assuming Grind House stays on schedule, there should be a torrent of official news and promotions shortly after the new year, and we'll be dissecting every crumb for details so you are the first to know!

Links:
@IMDB
@IGN
@Wikipedia
@JoBlo
Tarantino.info
Q-Tarantino.de
Tarantino, Rodriquez and some cast at San Diego Comic Con July, 2006 (four clips) @ifilm
Grindhouse Trailer from 2006 Scream Awards @ Youtube
Interview with Danny Trejo @ Austin360.com
Grindhouse Images @ Entertainment Weekly