TRAILER TRASH is pre-strike

In what is quite possibly the stupidest idea for a film I've ever had to write about (although strangely, curiosity will have me their opening night to see it most likely), Eli Roth's feature film full of 5 minute trailers titled Trailer Trash is being fast-tracked as a pre-strike movie over at MGM and it will be in cinema's on August 22nd 2008. You know despite my continuing disdain for the Hostel series of films, I do really like Eli Roth and I appreciate his enthusiasm for film and I would love to see him have a long career doing straight genre movies... like Cabin Fever but doing things like this and Hostel, really make people question whether he can do a cut and dry, narrative flick.. You know what I mean? Like Tarantino can do whatever he wants because he has full length amazing films in the bag, Roth hasn't got that yet. He has one good nostalgic 80's horror homage movie, and two torture porn flicks and now a movie full of five minute shorts? If Grindhouse made no money this year, I don't see how this will. Roth told this to Bloody Disgusting...

.that's the date (August 22, 2008)! TRAILER TRASH was inspired by the two days we filmed "Thanksgiving," which was the most fun I've ever had filming anything. Trailer Trash is not a horror film, it's a comedy. It will be very R-rated and completely insane, and I'm producing it with Mike Fleiss (who I did both "Hostel" films with), and writing it with my friends Jeff Rendell (my "Thanksgiving" co-writer, who also played The Pilgrim), Noah Belson (my co-creator on "The Rotten Fruit,") and my brother Gabe, who's collaborated with me on everything I've ever done. I want to make a film like "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," which I consider to be the greatest achievement in the history of cinema. The best part is I get to shoot some new THANKSGIVING scenes, as well as other holiday slasher films I've always dreamed of making but never would because they'd completely ruin me. I can't wait to shoot!"

How Roth managed to convince MGM to finance this I'll never know, but this brings up a few things... 1) How many of Eli Roth's friends will direct some trailers. You have to believe Quentin Tarantino will get his hands dirty on this (can you imagine him actually doing a fake trailer for Inglorious Bastards, then having him actually make that as his next feature). When Roth first spoke about doing this he said he had spoken to Edgar Wright, Robert Rodriguez and Greg Nicotero (a zombie trailer for him) about shooting trailers. 2) Nicolas Cage, Simon Pegg, Danny Trejo.... did the Grindhouse trailers. Who for this one? 3) If audiences got attached to some of the trailers, how many would eventually be turned into features? I know Edgar Wright's horror trailer Don't got a massive response from people I have spoken to and many would love to see him direct that as a feature. 4) How will MGM market this film and how many people do you think will walk out when they realise it's not a feature film? I know the four fake trailers attached to Grindhouse, were the best part of the experience but none of them were five minutes long and I think, I could probably only stomach 2 bad one's, before I would start to shuffle and get irritated. I guess, if Roth could keep the absurdity and the adrenalin of the trailers going, then it could be an absolutely fun filled ride. They could be hilarious and if you don't like the sound of one, then a new genre is only moments away. Roth has to get more directors to do this, so they can tackle many different genres. In an ideal world we would want Hollywood's biggest stars doing a Film Noir, a 50's sci-fi, a Spaghetti Western, a war picture and of course horror... so we can sample all these different types of film's in one go... and get some real genre specific director's to work on them. How about getting Judd Apatow to do a comedy one... etc? Gotta admire Roth's originality in Hollywood and the balls of MGM to go through with this, though how much money it will make is another question entirely.