Now this is the kind of offbeat casting you expect out of Quentin Tarantino -- except that, really, it's not that unusual for him to cast his pals, so it makes a guy like Leonardo DiCaprio an edgier pick. Oh, that crazy Tarantino!

According to Variety, Eli Roth is set to play Sgt. Donnie Donowitz, "a baseball bat swinging Nazi hunter" in Tarantino's already much-discussed Inglorious Bastards. Brad Pitt is still "in talks" for Aldo Raine, but it would be a shocker if it wasn't official. Pitt and Roth, together at last, the pair-up the world never knew it wanted.

DiCaprio has gone from "in talks" to "eliminated." He was being considered for the part of SS Col Hans Landa, but Tarantino has decided that part should be played by a real live German. This is probably a good idea, as the last thing any film needs is a wonky accent. I do find it funny that when it comes to accuracy, this is one movie that is determined to have a real German, as opposed to the dozens of films that ignore portraying race, ethnicity, and culture!

The cast is expected to be formalized shortly, and filming to begin in Europe this fall. Given that Tarantino is looking to his friends to fill the empty slots, I am still betting Tim Roth and Michael Madsen will pop up somewhere. Who else do you expect to pop up in Bastards, readers? And what do you think of Roth's addition?

I think Scott Weinberg's getting set for Comic-Con as I write this, so I'll briefly fill in on the gorehound beat. Mirrors director Alexandre Aja has released what he calls "a new tasty visual from one of my favorite scenes" in the film. Per Aja's penchant for extravagant gross-outs, the picture is -- how do you say? -- aggressive. I'm putting it under the jump. It's gruesome -- watch out.

It's also -- and some of you may petition to have me committed for this -- strangely beautiful, albeit in a way only a horror freak could love. Unlike, say, the work of Eli Roth, who's like a giddy kid in a candy store when it comes to gore, Aja's imagery has been kind of artful in its grandiosity. Of the Splat Pack membership, I think he's the most concerned with the egghead aspects of horror movie aesthetics: shot composition, the color palette, symmetry, etc. That's a large part of the reason I'm looking forward to Mirrors, which otherwise looks pretty standard-issue. A truly great-looking horror film might be able to get away with not having much of a concept.

Anyway, Aja will be at Comic-Con promoting Mirrors, and I'm sure Scott, Eric or Elisabeth will have something for you from there. Meanwhile, click through for the photo -- if you dare. Not Safe for Work.

The most unusual film projects pop up in the most unexpected of places. The quick-eyed gang at /film caught a chat between Billboard and The RZA in which the musican / actor dropped a hint about a movie project he was working on. "RZA has developed a martial arts film with Hollywood pal Eli Roth called The Man with the Iron Fist, which he says has "the blessing" of his 'teacher,' Quentin Tarantino."

The combination of those names with "martial arts film" is what had people buzzing. Or at least, those who were dedicated enough to be online providing movie news over the holiday weekend. (Salute them now.) CHUD's Devin Faraci decided to get to the bottom of the story, and e-mailed Roth to find out what was up. It's even cooler than the Billboard quote would have you believe. The Man with the Iron Fist was written entirely by RZA (and has nothing to do with the Marvel character of a similar moniker), and will be his directorial debut.

You know, sometimes you just want to get your hands on a studio executive and shake them until they see sense. Straight from the 'why bother?' files, Bloody Disgusting has received a tip that Hostel producer Scott Spiegel has been tapped to direct the third installment of the horror series. Not only would Spiegel be behind the camera for the flick, but he would also be in charge of writing the script. Even though I might not be the biggest fan of Eli Roth or Hostel, I do know one thing: if you aren't going to do something right, don't do it at all.

After the release of Hostel II, it became clear that Roth had no plans on torturing tourists again in the near future, and fans of the series were given the bad news that a third film could be a straight-to-DVD affair. At least fans can take solace in the fact that Spiegel produced the first two films, and has solid horror cred, so at least he knows his way around some blood-spatter. Spiegel's deal has not been confirmed yet, so stay tuned to Cinematical for any updates that come our way.

What do you think? Should Hostel continue without Roth? Or, is the series better off as the sole property of Roth's sick imagination?

That's right; everyone's favorite gore hound, Eli Roth (Hostel), is taking a vacation from blood and guts and trying something just a little different. Roth spoke with journalists backstage at the NME Awards in LA on Wednesday and announced his next project -- a PG-13 'disaster' flick along the lines of Transformers and Cloverfield. Roth told reporters, "This will be my first big-budget, PG-13, mass-destruction movie; I went total chaos and pandemonium." Roth didn't give many more details than that, but ever the self-promoter, he did tell reporters there would be a "big announcement" about the film next month.

So the obvious question is: Why the change of heart? This is the same guy who wanted topless beheaded chicks on his poster art after all. Roth said that, "I feel like I pushed the violence in R movies about as far as I can push it. I feel like I'm bled out. I wanna switch it up, everyone I know has been saying 'When are you gonna do a movie my kids can see?'" -- forget about kids, how about making a movie that doesn't make a fully-grown woman want to upchuck into her popcorn?

Ooo-wee, that Uwe makes good copy. Happily, those who have responded to the petition to get Uwe Boll to step away from the camera now have more than one force of opposition: a second petition to keep Dr. Uwe in his current line of work. Cinematical's Erik Davis caught the beleaguered Boll's plea for support on April 9, and yet another fan has responded: Lauren Brenner of Greyface Media is the sponsor behind this noble petition: "after all, he's better than that hack Scorsese." Boll couldn't have said it better. (In case you were wondering, the first pro-Boll petition is here, and so far there are almost 4,000 signatures.)

Oh wait, he did: he's not a bleeping retard like Michael Bay, and he isn't making the same bleeping movie again and again like Eli Roth, as the good doctor was saying ... So far, four cineastes have signed this (hopefully 100% on-the-level) petition. Now, are these four names going to count against the 194,000 so far who who have signed the Stop Dr. Uwe Boll Petition? I know those looking for a 2009 release of In the King's Name Again, Already will want to add their email addresses in hopes of being solicited by hapless Nigerian ex-ministers of finance and providers of natural sex herbs. Thanks to Glenn Creamer for this tip.

Which side are you on: Pro Boll or anti Boll?

I can just see Eli Roth grinning ear to ear about this news (you can too, look at the photo). I've never agreed with claims that violent movies influence violent behavior, but I also don't imagine violent movies are necessarily good for people who already have violent tendencies. Yet a new study argues that violent movies do in fact help to lower crime rates. According to the New York Times, a research paper was just presented to the American Economic Association concluding that "would-be assailants" choose to go see violent movies instead of performing violent acts themselves. That's right, murderers, rapists, muggers and the like apparently get their rocks off by watching actors perform their favorite bad deeds. Then, not only have they been kept out of trouble for two hours; they are also satisfied for days afterward. The reasoning behind this conclusion is based on data that shows crime rates are way down on weekends when a new violent movie is in theaters, and they stay down for a good period of time beyond that opening weekend.

That could be a neat coincidence. But how does the study indicate that the "would-be assailants" are actually part of that movie's audience? It seems a little too easy to think that violent people are pacified by violent movies. Attracted to them? Sure. Influenced by them? It can be argued. Subdued by them? I doubt it. At least not most of them, anyway. One of the economists who wrote the paper, Professor Gordon Dahl, pointed out that young men attending a movie have chosen that activity over drinking alcohol and/or taking drugs, either of which might have led to violent acts. He went on, however, to argue that Hollywood should actually be making less violent movies that still have the same appeal ... such as Adam Sandler movies over gory horror movies. The New York Times makes sure to let us know that Dahl is in fact a Mormon who doesn't allow his kids to watch violent movies; he even just bought one of those DVD players that cuts out offensive content. I have to agree with Melissa Henson of the Parents Television Council and say that this is one of the goofiest studies I've read about in a long time.

[via Fark.com]

Rogue

I don't care how many times they push it back, or how much potential for hackneyed disaster there is in a film about a killer crocodile -- I'm looking forward to Rogue, mostly because there was a lot that impressed me about Greg Mclean's debut film, 2005's Wolf Creek. For one thing, it was bold enough to defy several horror cliches, such as foreshadowing dread in the early scenes -- the first thirty minutes of Wolf Creek could be part of an Aussie road drip dramedy, with three aimless kids taking their rickety car way too far into unsafe areas of the Outback. It's also a film that's completely unrelenting in the psychic trauma it wants to inflict on the audience. By the time the slaughtering starts, we know these characters -- we care about them. Frankly, Mclean seems like he'd be completely bored with making a standard slasher/monster film with paper-thin characters. Therefore, I'm going to be first in line for his killer croc movie, and wait for my enthusiasm to blow up in my face.

Friday the 13th

I have no idea if this will get to theaters by late 2008, but I know that Platinum Dunes does have the gears grinding, so it's a possibility. In fact, a little birdie recently told me something hilarious -- Corey Feldman went in and pitched himself as the star of this thing. For those who don't remember, Feldman played Vorhees foe Tommy Jarvis in two installments of the original series, and he apparently had designs on making the Friday remake his newest comeback vehicle. There's really nothing you can do with Jason at this point other than remake him, but how? Word is that PD wants the remake to feature both Jason and his trademark mask -- two elements that didn't congeal until Part III of the original series, so I'm imagining a smelting together of the first three films, set in modern day and with a lot of in-jokes. I guess it will be a film about a little boy who drowns in a lake and immediately morphs into an overgrown, lumbering killer with a machete. Sounds intriguing.

If you hear the name Eli Roth and you immediately think of "horror," well, that only makes sense. The guy's only made three movies, and they're all of the icky variety. His next project, however, will be a comedy ... but there'll probably be a good deal of graphic violence, anyway. According to Bloody-Disgusting.com, August 28 is when MGM will be releasing Mr. Roth's Trailer Trash. Yep, that "collection of fake trailers" project that Eli mentioned a while back. Looks like that will be the filmmaker's next (and immediate) gig.

Says Roth: " 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." Way to aim high, Eli! And before all you anonymous bashers start trashing this concept, keep in mind that there are quite a few laughs to be found in flicks like Kentucky Fried Movie and Amazon Women on the Moon -- and Trailer Trash seems to fall right inside that "sketch-comedy" sub-genre -- only for movie nerds. All I know is that if Trailer Trash is as amusing for 80-some minutes as Roth's Thanksgiving trailer was for three minutes, then that will make for one funny film.

Is it just me, or is arguing about 'torture porn' sooo 2006? But, it's not like horror director Eli Roth has ever been one to back away from a fight. Deadline Hollywood Daily tells us about a new post on Roth's personal MySpace page in response to Entertainment Weekly film critic Lisa Schwartzbaum's take on the 'torture porn' genre. Back in July, she had written a film commentary titled 'What I Hate' and as it turns out, the lady hates 'torture porn' -- which is a term that is still not readily accepted in a lot of horror fan circles. You can read Schwartzbaum's entire editorial here, but here are some of the highlights: "It's quite simple: I hate these movies. I won't see these movies" and as if that wasn't inflammatory enough, she went on to say, "I'm not impressed with the ''quality'' of the gore or the ''wit'' of the film making. I'm not enjoyably scared; I'm horrified, and not in the way horror fans get off on, groaning and screaming with pack-mentality excitement. Instead, my horror is one of disturbance and anger: Who makes this vile crap?"

Well, Roth is someone who makes 'this vile crap', and he wasn't exactly thrilled with Schwartzbaum's take on his work. Some of Roth's response: "There is no such thing as "torture porn." It's a made up term, made up by people who don't understand these movies, who are afraid to even watch them, and who feel some bizarre sense of moral obligation to warn the public about them, despite the fact they don't watch them and never would," Then there are people like myself who grew up watching slasher flicks and just don't get what all the fuss is about. Roth will be keeping it relatively PG when he shoots his episode of Heroes: Origins this year. Of course, if you can't wait for the 'goo', Roth is still wrapping up Cabin Fever 2 (which he's producing), and there's still the possibility his big-screen version of Stephen King's Cell will hit theaters at some point in the next five years. Roth wound up his rant with instructions to Schwartzbaum to find a new line of work if she is willing to dismiss films without actually sitting down and watching them. So, as much as I might not personally be a fan of Roth, the man does have a point; don't you think?