Machete Tagged Articles at Cinematical

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?

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 is inevitable -- any form of art will, at some point, turn inwards. Instead of focusing on other forms of life, the form will attempt to reveal itself -- whether exploratory and serious or sarcastic and mocking. In Hollywood, the camera has spun inwards countless times. Sometimes it's earnest, but most often it's a great serving of satire and irony.

There are a ton of great examples of this, from Boogie Nights to Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Strange Brew to The Big Lebowski. If I had 50 slots, I could make this comprehensive, but I only have seven. So you're getting the best mock-filled flicks of this century -- films ranging from the year 2000 all the way to 2008. Check them out after the jump, and weigh in with your picks below.

WARNING: The following videos are NSFW. They contain, among other things, violence and foul language. Watch at your own risk.

It's not easy reconciling the two sides of Robert Rodriguez. One likes to make pseudo-schlock flicks with machine-gun-leg chicks, and the other likes to make kids movies -- not exactly an expected transition is it? Latino Review has posted a script review for Rodriguez's latest kiddie romp, Shorts. So let's get right to the point, shall we? Review's scooper liked what he saw. Sure there were some complaints, and we'll get to those in a moment, but overall it's a solid thumbs up.

Shorts is the story of Toe Jackson, a young boy in a Texas subdivision who narrates four stories set in the heart of the suburban neighborhood. Now for the bad news. According to the review, the script is a little heavy on the "fart jokes" -- also, it may be a little too focused on the boys. This is a shame considering what a great young female character Rodriguez created in Spy Kids. Then again, he also managed to make a list of the most misogynistic flicks, but I digress. The reviewer also had some complaints about character names, because the script is loaded with cutesy ones like Loogie and Nose.

It's likely that most of Rodriguez's fans are focused squarely on the long awaited sequel to Sin City, not to mention those of you out there hankering for a full-length Machete feature, so Shorts probably won't be high on your list of priorities. If, however, you've got some rug rats at home, then you might want to get used to the idea of seeing this movie in theaters. Shorts is tentatively scheduled for release in 2009.

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!

Shoot 'Em Up opens this week, and Clive Owen is making Bugs Bunny look all sorts of tough and cool. He banters. He sexes up the ladies. He handles guns like a pro. Heck, he even tries to buy them with food stamps. All this badness and guns has thrown me into an antihero state of mind. But before I can go a-listing, we've got to decide what an antihero is.

Blending all of the vague definitions together, your antihero is basically the person who doesn't imbue the classic attributes of heroism. This could mean being inept and stupid, but for the means of this list, I'm going for the antiheroes whose methods, manners and intentions can be questioned. Some are good guys who do bad things, some are bad guys who do good things. Some just don't care as much as a good hero should. But they're all so uber cool that whether you've seen the films or not, you know who they are, and you might just be quoting them.

Note: Only one cop is included on this list, and it isn't John McClane -- he's much more of a bitter hero than a questionable antihero.

Harry Callahan -- Dirty Harry (1971)

I know what you're thinking: "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

While I love most of the guys on this list, the one who has to be there above all others is Dirty Harry Callahan. He might be a cop trying to keep the streets safe, but instead of upholding the law, he enforces morality with his gun, boot, or whatever else he can find. In the first of the action series, Callahan is hunting down Scorpio, a serial killer loosely based on the Zodiac killer. He tortures suspects when he needs to, and does it all in a suit, tie and sweater. Most of all, he's "Dirty," but no one knows the specific reason why.

I want to start this off by saying that I love Grindhouse. I was anxiously itched for it to come out, and I absolutely adored Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, as well as the Danny Trejo faux trailer, Machete. (I enjoyed Death Proof as well, especially the end, but not nearly as much as the other.) Of course, I was thrilled when Trejo said that El Machete had been greenlit by the Weinsteins. Now, I'm not so sure -- at least, not sure if Rodriguez's nieces are to be believed -- the movie might not be a feature on its own.

While chatting with Bloody Disgusting, Electra and Elise Avellan said: "Robert said he'd do it [Machete], and asked for us to be in it," and "Robert wants to do Grindhouse 2 with [the two films being] Machete and The Babysitter Twins." I'm sure fans of the twins will love this news, but it just isn't working for me. Although Rodriguez is currently working on Barbarella, the twins say that they already know a bit about the potential plot. Electra said: "Robert mentioned something about the end of the world and Hollywood action films, where we'd be trained in Mexico to come back here and fight," while Elise says: "Hollywood starts f*cking with us, so we start killing... we [would] kill Harvey Weinstein in the movie, although that's just talk [right now]." This is all just the rumor stage, so I'm hoping it stays that way -- or, that they morph it a little. Maybe machine-gun-leg Rose McGowan trains them and they're her right-hand women or something. Otherwise, let Trejo shine on his own.

It looks like a future for the Mexican bad-ass, otherwise known as Machete, isn't just a hope-inducing rumor. In March, there were rumblings that the short trailer for Grindhouse would become a direct-to-DVD feature. Cinema Blend believed it, our Jette Kernion didn't and I was just holding out hope. It didn't seem really realistic, and one would imagine that it would be even less so after Grindhouse failed to meet expectations. Yet the latest news has an even better future than we could've imagined for the man with the big knives.

While talking with the guys over at IESB, Danny Trejo has said that Bob and Harvey Weinstein have greenlit El Machete. The big kicker -- it won't be a straight-to-DVD release, but a feature film where the machetes in Trejo's jacket can shine larger than life. I'm not sure why they would choose to increase the film's scope after its partnering films did so poorly, but I can't complain. It's great news for people like me, who are huge Trejo fans. Then again, it'd probably get a bigger draw than a gorey, 3-hour horror film -- there's all those action fans and ladies anxious to see Trejo having manly moments with naked women and waterfalls. Or, at least, the former!

However, this tasty treat is also housed with some less-than-awesome news. Trejo also says that it might come out before Sin City 2. Coming after news that Robert Rodriguez might take on The Jetsons, and now a feature Machete, when in hell will we get the next Sinstallment? I'm hoping that none of these are affecting the Sin City schedule, and that all of this side-work isn't indicative of problems with the adaptation. But either way, at least we haven't seen the end of Machete.

I love Danny Trejo. Really, what's not to love? He offered to cut vatos for Bubble Boy, he's flown on Con Air and he's been in practically everything Robert Rodriguez has done, from Desperado to Spy Kids. Hell, you can even be him in the video game Def Jam Fight for NY. Seeing him as Machete in one of Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's faux trailers for their Grindhouse double feature is just the manly, latin cherry to a tasty blood sundae. And now it might be a teasing bit to more.

Depending on how much you can believe Rodriguez, Trejo's machete-wielding character might make it to a straight-to-DVD release. Cinema Blend seems to think so, while our Jette Kernion thinks he was less than serious. She's got a point. Would Rodriguez busy himself with a movie that wouldn't even get a wide-release? That being said, maybe a huge fan rush will miraculously change his mind and make his joke something serious. I mean, it's worked before. Right? Right? If Trejo does get a deal out of SXSW, he'd be one of the few -- this year's festival has so far been quite lackluster in terms of actual deal-making, news-making or any other kind of making. Here's hoping things pick up in the homestretch.