‘Machete’ Hacks Out a New Home At Fox
by Ben Bussey
In a perhaps surprising turn of events, Deadline announced today that the upcoming Machete – a feature length adaptation of the fake trailer from Grindhouse – will be slicing up the screen courtesy of 20th Century Fox, rather than Dimension Films. We can be forgiven for being a little surprised here, given that Dimension, the genre-oriented offshoot of Miramax and now The Weinstein Company, not only made Grindhouse but also have been home to, if I’m not mistaken, every single film Robert Rodriguez has made since From Dusk Till Dawn. According to Deadline, it was a combination of bidding war and studio politics that landed the film in Fox’s hands; that Rodriguez is producing Predators for them is a factor.
The most eye-catching piece of the Deadline article is the quote from an unnamed source at the Weinstein company claiming it wasn’t a matter of them being outbid as being uninterested: “we saw the footage and it’s not very good at all.” Cue several thousand people shouting “that didn’t stop you releasing Rob Zombie’s Halloweens.” We don’t want to get into speculation, but with stuff like this and the rumours surrounding the delay of Piranha 3-D – and, for that matter, the quiet abandonment of Patrick Lussier’s Halloween 3-D – this doesn’t seem to be the best of times in Weinstein land. Having said that, Deadline also note that Rodriguez is still making a fourth Spy Kids for Dimension – and presumably the eternally-in-development Sin City 2 still has a home there…? And, lest we think things are that bad for the Weinstein Company, let’s not forget that Inglourious Basterds just cleaned up at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, and quite rightly so I might add.
But hey, if Rodriguez is now in cahoots with Fox, and Machete and Predators turn out well, we can surely expect bigger (and better?) things from the man in the stetson. Co-directed by Rodriguez with his long time assistant editor Ethan Manquis, Machete is due in April, and if it’s as much fun as the fake trailer, we should be in for a good time indeed.
