Hostel: Part II

[MacGuffin]

Czech boost for 'Hostel II'
IPC also helped secure financing
Source: Variety

Eli Roth, who just wrapped "Hostel II's" Prague and Iceland shoots, ventured into more than a new threshold for gore on the project.
The energetic, prankish helmer returned to the Czech Republic for the seven-week production, bringing his Raw Nerve company into partnership again with Prague's Intl. Production Co. because, he says, "They know how to put the money on the screen."

The four-year-old Prague-based venture run by American Dan Frisch and Brit Philip Waley was recommended by "Pink Panther" editor George Folsey, Roth's friend, after its work on the laffer, involving 27,000 extras in the town of Teplice. The recommendation, along with the country's "beautiful rotting buildings," won over Roth for the first "Hostel" shoot.

IPC also helped secure financing, which didn't hurt on such a risky project. All part of the plan, says Frisch, who conceives of his small production company as a boutique business, taking on a select few clients and offering them production guarantees and line producing in addition to the typical production services.

The four-year-old Prague shingle, which moved beyond servicing work after doing "Running Scared" in 2004, typifies a Czech trend in which service providers are assuming more responsibilities and involvement.

Prague's Stillking has just taken on packaging and financing for Ehren Kruger's adaptation of the novel "The Keep," but has been co-producing pics from "Casino Royale" and "The Illusionist" to "Everything is Illuminated" and "Van Helsing."

Prague's Milk and Honey outfit has also moved into financial guarantees and other involvement, says prexy Tomas Krejci, both to remain competitive and to tap into government funds. In the absence of film incentives from the Czech government, production service companies must get their clients VAT refunds of 22% on goods and 5% on services. In order to qualify, he says, real financial responsibility must be shown. "It's necessary that the company in Prague be in ownership of the material."

Although Roth's budget more than doubled with "Hostel II" and Sony has kicked in $19 million in P&A, his first outing spent just $2.2 million on production in 38 days.

Czech shoots can't compete dollar for dollar with Bulgaria or Romania these days, but Frisch says, "We don't sell cheap; we sell value."

Roth, for his part, has ramped up the creepiness in "Hostel II," which carries on his tale of kidnapped backpackers sold off to sicko businessmen for dismemberment with a custom built train car, a bigger torture complex ("We've got actual theme rooms") and more locations in derelict buildings around Bohemia.

This time around, the victims are college girls in Rome (Lauren German, Bijou Phillips and Heather Matarazzo) who foolishly take the advice of an exotic Czech woman, who recommends a lovely spa vacation in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Slovak tourist authorities were already annoyed by the gory "Hostel," and this time around, Roth cast former Slovak culture minister Milan Knazko as one of the heavies.

Roth is clearly thrilled at auds' recent taste for torture. Roth, an NYU grad with an encyclopedic knowledge of his craft, points to the greats of American horror from the 1970s, like "Jaws," "The Exorcist" and "The Shining," and says "I felt American horror had gone soft. I wanted to amp it up."

More fresh visions are on the way, says Frisch, such as psychological thriller "Site 9" and a WWII true story set on the soccer field, "Baker's Dozen," which IPC is developing.

"Hostel III" is all but signed as well, to possibly follow Roth's next shoot, Stephen King's "The Cell," although "Hostel II's" release date will affect timing, Roth says.

[MacGuffin]

[modage]

ew.

[Pubrick]

i hate kids today.

[Fernando]

That looks like an 'arrachera' (flank steak) 

[MacGuffin]

Fernando Wins!! 

[MacGuffin]

From Eli Roth:

Quote: The poster just got approved by the MPAA. This is now officially the U.S. teaser poster, hitting theaters soon. How ****ing insane is that?!? I feel like the luckiest director on the planet to have Lionsgate handling my film.

If you didn't vomit during THE HOLIDAY, you'll definitely puke on your way home when you see this up on the wall at your local multiplex.

I couldn't be happier.

[grand theft sparrow]

That poster perfectly sums up exactly where Roth's films go wrong.

[MacGuffin]

Another jump in ick meter
The 'Hostel II' lobby poster flaunts a close-up of flayed flesh. Love it or loathe it, it's a big time for gore.
Source: Los Angeles Times

Take your kids to the theater next week to see the barnyard fable "Charlotte's Web" and you might find yourself confronted in the lobby by a jolting new poster that is pure slaughterhouse — and the latest example of pop culture looking more and more like an autopsy photo.

The posters due to arrive in theaters nationwide next week are advertisements for "Hostel II," a horror movie due in the summer from Lionsgate Entertainment. The director of the film, gore merchant Eli Roth, conceded Friday that he was "pleasantly surprised" that the extreme image was approved by the Motion Picture Assn. of America; every inch of the poster is packed with splayed organs and moist tissue.

"My jaw was on the ground when I first saw the poster," Roth said. "It's unbelievably beautiful. It's one of the most beautiful posters I've ever seen."

Beauty, clearly, is in the eye of the beholder on this one. On the website hubs of horror and genre fans, debate is already underway about the poster and "Hostel II"; several postings on the Harry Knowles website Ain't It Cool News dismissed the movie as "torture porn" and railed against the poster as a sick display. Others wondered what exactly their peers were so upset about.

"You guys," one fan wrote, "must hate walking down the meat aisle in the grocery store."

And just what is that meat anyway? The photo used for the poster was taken by Tim Palen, co-president of theatrical marketing for Lionsgate. He said he was inspired by some "elegantly photographed" cuts of meat he saw in a magazine. With the help of a "great butcher in La Crescenta," Palen experimented with different slabs of animal flesh until he found the perfect look. "It's wild boar," he said proudly.

Roth also compared the image to something "you might see at a high-end market in the meat section." He contends that "if you saw it at Gelson's, it would make you want to buy a steak."

The image still gave pause to the advertising reviewers at the MPAA, where the image was given "more consideration and review than most posters," Palen said. (MPAA spokeswoman Kori Bernards said Friday she did not have any direct knowledge of the "Hostel II" images.) For what it's worth, Roth said he believes the photo is so close-up (and bloodless) that the tissue image is abstract enough to stay within MPAA taste guidelines.

"That's the beauty of it," he said. "It tells you everything you need to know about this movie, but it doesn't give away anything about the story. When you add the words 'Hostel II' it becomes extremely disturbing. You know those poor girls are in for it."

The "poor girls" would be the onscreen victims in "Hostel II," which is now in post-production in Los Angeles. The sequel carries on from the 2005 movie that presented an Eastern European hotspot for the bored rich who pay to torture and snuff tourists; both of the films are produced by Quentin Tarantino.

The fact that the posters are going out a few days after Christmas could add to criticism from conservative quarters about this kind of film. Just this week, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights railed against the Christmas Day release of "Black Christmas," a slasher flick with a yuletide theme. Palen said he has been anticipating squeamish reactions from exhibitors who might blanch at putting posters in their lobbies.

"The reaction has been just the opposite, though," he said. "There's a buzz out there and we got calls [from exhibitors] asking how soon they can get them."

Lionsgate has shown a flair for movie posters that elicit visceral reactions, which is a branding must for a horror film. The signature images for the "Saw" movies, for instance — such as the two mangled fingers of a corpse for "Saw II" — clearly spoke to hard-core fans while turning the stomachs of just about everybody else.

Then again, stomach turning is in right now. The autopsy had a banner year and, unlike the quaint days of "Quincy, M.E.," every twist and turn is now shown to the audience in high-definition. Television gore, especially, has increased by the gallon since "The X-Files" whipped out the rib separators in the 1990s.

On television, the hit "CSI" franchises continued to specialize in high-craft, slow-motion bodily harm. Their success in syndication means that viewers across America can watch detailed eviscerations and decapitations at dinnertime. Then there's "Dexter," the critically acclaimed Showtime series that, literally, showed its star sliding around in the blood of a serial killer's victims.

At theaters, Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" carved up characters with the sort of verve once reserved only for fringe genre films. In video games — easily the year's most dynamic entertainment market — the gore is not only relentless, it's accepted as a core aesthetic.

Some observers say the cultural crackdown in recent years on sexual content (especially following Janet Jackson's breast flash during the Super Bowl) has pushed creators, especially on television, to use violence instead of sex to titillate — more red and less blue.

Roth attributes it all to the climate of fear in post-Sept. 11 America and the clammy apprehension caused by the coffins and war-zone images coming home from Baghdad.

"I think all of this takes the temperature of culture. People are afraid. A horror movie is the last place where it's OK to scream in public."

The director claims his meaty movie poster is a public service, in a way. "This makes it very clear what my movie is .... Nobody is going to think they are walking into 'Happy Feet: Part II.' Not after they see that poster."

[MacGuffin]

NUDE, NO HEAD
Source: Page Six

BIJOU Phillips is about to give a bunch of geeks the thrill of their lives. The former wild child is starring in the new Lionsgate slasher flick "Hostel Part Two," and the racy poster for the movie is being unveiled this weekend at the Comic Con event at the Javits Center. The poster shows Phillips nude and beheaded. Even better, the photo shoot for it was at the El Royale apartment complex in Hollywood with all the windows open. "The neighbors got an eyeful," said our spy. Not that Phillips cares - she's an exhibitionist.

[MacGuffin]

[polkablues]

Looks fan-made to me.  Unless they actually pay people to sloppily photoshop two previously existing posters now.

[Pubrick]

can't wait for the next version with the TMNT credits at the bottom.

[MacGuffin]

Watch a New Clip from Hostel: Part II!

For those of you dying to catch even the tiniest glimpse of Hostel: Part II, a brand, spanking new international clip has just arrived online. The clip itself is the same one that played a few weeks ago at New York ComicCon, and it actually features three separate scenes which, I imagine, are the tamest of the entire film.


http://www.hostel2.it/clip/index.php

[MacGuffin]

Acting For Tarantino To Torture In Prague: Eli Roth's 'Hostel: Part II' Column
Director discusses sequel's European shoot, filming a part for 'Grindhouse' in first exclusive MTV News column.
By Eli Roth

In an exclusive ongoing column for MTV, director Eli Roth is chronicling the making of his eagerly anticipated summer sequel, "Hostel: Part II." In this inaugural installment, Roth takes us through the first part of the film's European shoot.

The shoot was awesome, but exhausting. I went right from making the first "Hostel" into the sequel without a break, and one of the main reasons was because I wanted to get back to Prague. I had heard so much about it over the years but had never been there before I made "Hostel." It's one of the few places that truly lived up to the hype. Prague was one of the only major cities not bombed in World War II, so it still has all the architecture and old buildings from 500 years ago. It's filled with cobblestone streets, beautiful girls and bars that go all night. The people are great, and I pretty much kept my entire crew intact from the first film, so it felt like making a movie with my friends. We had a blast making the first "Hostel," and I was eager to get back and get shooting.

I worked on the script while I was touring and doing press internationally from January through March, and I finally sat down and wrote the script for "Hostel: Part II" in April and May of last year. I went location scouting in July and was back in Prague in August prepping the film to start in September.

Right before I started shooting, Quentin Tarantino asked me to audition for his "Grindhouse" film. I was like, "Uh, Quentin, I'm not an actor," and he said, "Come on, man, you were hilarious in 'Cabin Fever.' Just come in and read." I figured that only for Quentin would I do something like this, so I drove down to Venice Beach to his casting office — while I was in the middle of casting "Hostel: Part II." I got to the casting office and saw the name ahead of me on the sign-in sheet: it was actor Derek Richardson from "Hostel." Derek was like, "What the hell are you doing here?" I just said, "Don't ask me ..."

I read for Quentin's casting director, and clearly Quentin was pleased because he asked me to come in for a callback. This time I went to Quentin's house, and I read for him. It was totally surreal because we're friends, and he's executive producer on "Part II," so he knew that I was about to go to Prague to shoot. I had no idea how I'd be able to act in Quentin's film while shooting my own. I soon had an even bigger problem: I got the part. Quentin's schedule kept getting pushed, so his start date was closer and closer to mine. I told him that I'd give him a week to shoot out my part, but anything more than that was going to be irresponsible to "Part II." Quentin said, "Just come to Texas and film for a week, we'll figure out a way to make it work."

So two weeks before I started principal photography on "Part II," I flew from Prague to Texas and acted in Quentin's movie. It was so much fun. It was like getting a master class in directing right before my own shoot. And then I got on a plane, flew to Prague and literally went right into rehearsals with the cast. I was pretty jetlagged and exhausted, but also energized from what we'd just shot. It also was a good exercise for me to be in front of the camera, because it helps keep me in tune with what the actors are going through and how they'd want to be treated. The torture scenes are tough to shoot, and I want to make sure the actors feel comfortable and safe enough to really go insane. We filmed some brutal, brutal scenes, a number of which gave crewmembers nightmares.

Any time I'm shooting a scene and I'm the only one who can look at the monitor, I know I'm on the right track. The cast was amazing, and they all pushed themselves and opened up in ways they never had before on camera. We had a 45-day shoot, most of it in the Czech Republic, with a second unit running around Europe filming in France and Monaco. My brother Gabe directed my second unit, and at one point when I was shooting during the day and at night, he'd come in with his crew and we'd hand off the cameras and they'd shoot all night. They called themselves the soup crew. His footage looked amazing, and it was fun to have 24-hour Roth brothers directing during the last week of shooting. He'd come in at around 8 or 9 a.m. and I'd say, "OK, we missed this shot, this shot, we need an insert here ..." and he'd just add it to his list. Then he'd take the cameras, and I'd come in the next morning, and they'd have this exhausted, up-all-night-torturing-people look, and I'd take the cameras back and shoot whatever I had planned. It worked out really well, because basically you get double the amount of shots you would on any given day.