I HATED Eli Roth‘s first effort, Cabin Fever, hated it. However, I enjoyed the hell out of Hostel, and I think this guy may really be coming into his own as he gets ready to put together the sequel to Hostel as well as the feature adaptation of Stephen King’s latest novel “Cell”.
The lucky boys over at ReallyScary.com happened to have a few words with Roth as he is obviously making the rounds in promotion of the just released Hostel DVD. Here is what Roth had to say about both the films I just mentioned above. For the complete review click the link following the quote.
RS: You’re a horror filmmaker and it’s coming up to your third film so, of course, it’s time to do a Stephen King adaptation. That’s just the rule.
Roth: [laughs] Yeah, exactly. Actually I think my third film will be Hostel 2 and then I’ll do Cell after that. So many of my favorite directors have done a Stephen King adaptation and Stephen King is my favorite writer. It’s just one of these opportunities that you dream about ever since you’re a little kid. I consider it a real honor.
RS: Was Cell the one to do because it’s his newest thing book or is Cell something you really felt close to?
Roth: I would not have done it unless I fell in love with the story. I didn’t want to do it just to say I did a Stephen King adaptation. I couldn’t stop reading it. I thought it was such a clever, modern twist on the zombie movie. It’s people getting zapped on their cell phones and turning into complete killers. I’ve always wanted to make a zombie movie, but I never had a zombie idea that was that much different from the zombie films that have already been done. So when I read this, I thought, “Oh my God. Stephen King must be tortured by people on cell phones. It must drive him crazy.” I own a cell phone, but I try to be discrete when I use it. In the movie theater or a restaurant other people’s phones drive me crazy. You get that from reading Stephen King’s book with the whole thing with people and their phones being referred to as the phone crazies. The book is really about how cell phones have completely invaded all aspects of our culture and what if these people suddenly took over the world. I’ve always wanted to do a total, full-on, Armageddon zombie apocalypse. In the zombie movies whenever the moment turns and everyone becomes zombies, you never see it happening all over the world. You always see it on television, news flashes or quick flashes from another country, but you never actually see it like the way Roland Emmerich did it in The Day After Tomorrow. What if you took the Roland Emmerich approach and in the first 20 minutes of the movie, you actually saw everything going completely to hell in a matter of minutes. I want to see cars smashing into each other, people jumping out of buildings, people in movie theaters ripping each others’ throats out. I want to see total chaos and Armageddon around the world.
RS: Do you see it as a parallel for anything else going on around the world besides the cell phone aspect?
Roth: It’s one of those things I haven’t delved into yet because I’ve been busy writing Hostel 2. But I do see a number of things. It’s really about how cell phones have invaded all aspects of our society. At this point, I’m not looking at too much beyond that.
RS: Will Jay Hernandez be back for Hostel 2?
Roth: Yeah, Jay’s going to be in it, if I can afford him. After Hostel, he just shot Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center and now he’s starring in something [Boys Don’t Cry director] Kimberly Peirce is shooting. If he’s available and I can afford him, he’ll be in it otherwise I’m going to have to figure out another storyline.
For the full interview check it out a ReallyScary.com here
