DannyTrejo Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I'll give you a few details and some material from the press release right here ... but I've made an executive decision to place the brand-new poster for Frankie Latina's Modus Operandi beneath the jump -- but only because it's slightly "adult" in nature. Anyway, this flick sounds like a weird one, and of course I mean that in the nicest way possible.

Described by the Las Vegas Weekly as "a James Bond film directed by Ed Wood," the 8mm Modus Operandi is about ... heck, I'll let the press notes tell you: "Two briefcases with mysterious contents are stolen from top Presidential candidate Squire Parks, setting off a deadly series of double-crosses and betrayals. Desperate warring factions of subterranean organizations will stop at nothing to gain possession of the sensitive material. A covert branch of the CIA calls on notorious black ops agent Stanley Cashay, who has been barely existing in a semi-comatose twilight since the murder of his wife. Cashay is offered the identity of his wife's killer in exchange for locating and returning the cases." And it gets even crazier after that! (More post-jump.)

What has me intrigued is the responses from folks like Eric Kohn at IndieWire ("A mondo B-movie that holds nothing back ... Modus Operandi is a movie utterly content with its own insanity.") and Stephen Zeitchik of The Hollywood Reporter ("It bursts with campiness and odes to '70s movie outrageousness.") Sounds right up my alley.

Check post-jump for the poster premiere and more of that rather amusing plot synopsis...

When you think of a man of brawn who can outwit the ruthless Predator, you think of two men: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Adrien Brody. What, you didn't picture that last one? Well, Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal did. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Brody and Topher Grace are both set to join Alice Braga, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Walt Goggins, Danny Trejo and Oleg Taktarov in Predators, a franchise reboot of sorts that will follow several of earth's "killers" who are kidnapped and dropped on the Predator's home planet for a game of hide, seek and be brutally murdered.

All joking aside, Brody and Grace's unassuming demeanors will be a big part of their characters. Brody will play a soldier forced to become a leader (presumably because the Predator killed the old one), but is fit for the job because he's "a hunter of men." Grace will play a nerdy, accountant type whose very ordinariness hides the fact that he's a serial killer.

The rest of the cast is a little better suited for the lethal jungle. Braga will play a tough female killer, while Ali is a man who is unafraid to die. Goggins is a loose cannon (there's always one!) and Takatarov will be a former Russian operative. But baddest of them all is Trejo's Cuchillo, "a hardened warrior with two uzis strapped to his back." I don't know about you, but my leader would be the one with the twin uzis. That's just me though.

Shooting begins next month in Hawaii, and then moves to Austin. Variety notes that Brody lobbied very hard for the role, and has already signed on for future installments. So, I guess we know which operative makes it out of the jungle ...

It wasn't until fairly recently that voice acting in video games was done by either no-name actors trying to pay the bills or B- and C-list actors who were, well, also trying to pay the bills. The Command and Conquer games began employing a mixed bag of actors in its 1999 iteration, Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun, when they managed to snag Luke Skywalker's big daddy James Earl Jones, but otherwise continued casting random character actors like Udo Kier and Barry Corbin in future games like Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2.

Grand Theft Auto III changed the game, literally, with its roster of recognizable names and voices like Joe Pantoliano, Michael Madsen, Michael Rapaport, Debi Mazar, and Kyle MacLachlan all playing parts in the free-for-all crime cape that make Rockstar Games just that. With GTA III's massive sales and buzz (particularly from angry parents), the scene was set for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, which boasted an over-the-top cast particularly appealing to its target audience: Dennis Hopper, Danny Trejo, Gary Busey, Lee Majors, Debbie Harry, Ray Liotta, Tom Sizemore, and Jenna Jameson, just to name a few.

Maya Entertainment, a multifaceted company that produces, distributes, and exhibits Latino films, has teamed up with Blockbuster to present the Maya Inaugural Indie Film Series. These seven full-length films include La linea (The Line), a drama about a drug cartel in Tijuana; it packs an impressive cast, including Andy Garcia, Esai Morales, Valerie Cruz, Armand Assante, Ray Liotta, and Danny Trejo.

The film series just started in Los Angeles and kicks off in NYC August 1st, expanding across the US this September. Read the official list and descriptions after the jump.

(if this rumor is true, we officially have the strangest casting of 2009 so far. Here's Elisabeth Rappe reporting on a wicket Machete rumor for Horror Squad.)

While you'll have to file this firmly under "rumor" and "dreams," you can do an air punch at the very thought of just who Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis lined up for Machete. Bloody Disgusting reports that joining Danny Trejo in the Grindhouse spin-off are the following: Michelle Rodriguez, Jonah Hill, and (wait for it) Robert DeNiro.

Pause for a moment and repeat that: Robert DeNiro will share the screen with Danny Trejo in Machete. While it's still unconfirmed, BD notes that the source is none other than the one who sent them news of the Alien and Predator reboots, and those turned out to be true. So you can keep hope alive that you'll see DeNiro rocking the grindhouse world.

Read the rest at Horror Squad

James Wallace over at Gordon and the Whale had the cojones to corner Danny Trejo at CineVegas and got some tasty details from the tattooed tough guy.

Trejo confirmed that he is still starring in Robert Rodriguez's Machete as the title character, and that it's going to start filming in just five short weeks. Machete started as one of the fake trailers in Grindhouse, which was, some might say, one of the best parts of the double feature. The other fake trailer rumored to get the full-length treatment, Eli Roth's Thanksgiving, is listed as in development on IMDb, but as the other news from Trejo proves, even IMDb sometimes gets it wrong.

Although IMDb lists Trejo as a rumored cast member of Stallone's next blow-'em-up, The Expendables, Trejo told Wallace "his name was associated with the film for some unknown reason and he was never contacted by Sylvester Stallone or anyone involved with the film." Kind of a bummer -- for them!

Meanwhile, I'm really looking forward to another upcoming Trejo flick, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, which is Rob Zombie's first animated film. Am I alone here, or what?

Wonders never cease... At an early age, I got used to the strange looks from my friends when I listed the actors and stars I was most attracted to -- especially once I saw Dead Zone and became enamored with Christopher Walken. From then on, I steered clear of discussions about hot stars, or prepared for the horror-filled recoil if I did pipe in. It's gotten better over the years, but was never fully defeated until now.

I'm not sure how it's happened, but Nerve compiled a list of the "twenty sexiest ugly people alive" -- those people with unusual features who still have oodles of lusty charisma -- and none of my faves are on there. No Walken, Eric Roberts, Gary Oldman, Elias Koteas... I must be losing my touch. Instead, their picks in the movie world include Danny McBride, Danny Trejo, Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Steve Buscemi, and Mickey Rourke -- with the massacred face. Some of the guys I'm right there with, but man, Swinton? Not only did she make the list, but she's the only actress on there (excluding Sandra Bernhard's acting stints and Courtney Love's fleeting gigs). Ouch.

Do you agree with their picks? Better yet -- who are the names that hit you right to the core while passerby look on with confusion? And why? For years, I couldn't discern my own taste until a friend said: "You love larger than life men." And that was just it. When that charisma seeps out of the screen, no scar or sneer can fight it.

Do you have a favorite sexy ugly star, or are you purely a fan of the perfectly hot and symmetrical?

This time they f**ked with the right Mexican!

When I wrote about Eli Roth cooking up a feature helping of Thanksgiving, I couldn't help but think about Machete, and wish he was heading for the big screen. Just a week later, my wish has been granted! If only that could happen every day. Variety reports that Robert Rodriguez has written a script for Machete, and hopes to grab Danny Trejo and start production this June in Austin. But he won't helm this alone; this time around, he's grabbing longtime editor Ethan Maniquis to co-direct.

This blissful non-studio film (his first since El Mariachi) will follow Machete, a Mexican ex-Federale who hides as a day laborer until he gets "double-crossed by a corrupt state senator." He is, of course, also an expert knife-wielder and dude who can do some stunning things with a bike and a gun.

But that's not all. We've all been wondering what Rodriguez has been doing when he should have been making Sin City, Barbarella, and all the other projects that he's talked about. He's been writing Machete, and, well ... Predators -- yes, a sequel to Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1987 alien fest Predator. There's no further word on the project right now, so I'll leave it up to you to imagine what RR will make of it.

Are these the projects you want Rodriguez focusing on? Or is there something else you want to see him busy himself with?

UPDATE: 20th Century Fox has set a July 7, 2010 release date for Robert Rodriguez's Predators, meaning this will be one of next summer's biggest films. Rodriguez, while producing, will not write or direct. Will it be R-rated, or will they try to get a PG-13 out of it to appeal to a wider audience during the peak of the summer movie season? These are things we'll definitely be talking about ... [via erc Box Office]

It's only because Mark Young's upcoming The Killing Jar sounds like a nifty cross between hostage thriller and monster movie that I think this piece is worthy of note -- but there's also the fact that the film now has guys like Michael Madsen, Harold Perrineau, and Danny Trejo attached. And anyone who loves action / horror / B-movies in general has to be somewhat intrigued by that particular ensemble.

Mr. Young, who last year gave us the half-decent Tooth and Nail as part of the After Dark Horrorfest, will direct his own screenplay. The title is indeed The Killing Jar, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, it's about "a stranger armed with a shotgun who takes seven patrons hostage at a remote roadside diner. As the body count rises, the survivors discover that one of the hostages might be more dangerous than their captor." Count me in for this one. Any guesses, folks? One of the hostages is ... a werewolf! An alien! Bruce Wayne! I have no idea, but based on the flick's title, I'm guessing it's something icky and biological.

Production on The Killing Jar is presently underway in North Carolina. According to the IMDb, Kevin Gage, Lew Temple, and Lindsey Axelsson (yowza) are also on board. Needless to say (only because nobody would ever ask), this project is not a remake of this flick.

I loved Grindhouse. Well, I loved Planet Terror, loved the ads, and liked Death Proof. But I loved, loved, loved the Machete trailer. Being a huge fan of Danny Trejo, Machete gave me just what I wanted -- a silly movie focused on someone I love watching. Of course, after Grindhouse came out, there were tons of rumors about Machete getting his own feature film. Some believed it. Some didn't. I just hoped.

The other day, The Movie Blog threw up the poster to the right, which you can see on their site in all of its full-sized glory. Is this really an official poster for Machete? Is it really on its way? Was a script completed before the strike? I would hope that "yes," is the answer to all of those, but I'm trying to reign in my excitement for now.

In the meantime, we can fangirl and fanboy away. What do you think of the poster? Me, I like it, but it would lose a lot of its charm if its grainy artwork was shown on a shiny, slick new poster. My thought: keep it as-is, but send it to all theaters folded where the folds are, and printed without gloss. That would be sweet, but not as sweet as the decent man who was living a decent life, but now he is a brutal savage who must slaughter to stay alive!