Although this news comes pretty damn late, there are a few small tid-bits worth chewing on. Freddy (Poseidon) Rodriguez, Rose (Scream) McGowan and Josh (The Dead Girl) Brolin will star in Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror," a 60-minute zombie movie to be accompanied by a slasher film directed by Quentin Tarantino and released under the title Grind House by Dimension Films, according to Variety. As previously reported Dimension will bow "Grind House" -- a tribute to the '70s exploitation films that influenced both directors -- on Easter weekend next year. This past Easter saw a record-breaking holiday weekend for Dimension with the release of "Scary Movie 4." Casting hasn't officially been announced for Tarantino's "Death Proof," which is now filming in Los Angeles, CA. Marley Shelton, Michael Biehn, Jeff Fahey, Michael Parks and the Black Eyed Peas' Stacy Ferguson round out the cast in "Planet." The two pics will be surrounded by faux trailers created by Tarantino and Rodriguez.

Easter weekend? Hahahaha awesome!

And quite frankly, I don't really give a fuck about Rodriguez' segment - I just want Tarantino/Biehn slasher kroovyness! *salivate*

MTV writes:

"Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez have already combined on several memorable projects that could best be described as the good ("Sin City"), the bad ("Four Rooms") and the gloriously ugly ("From Dusk Till Dawn"), so it's no surprise that their next collaboration, "Grind House," is equal parts humorous, horrific and hokey. "It's awesome," Rodriguez reported last week of the flick, which is actually two smaller films with tongue-in-cheek trailers littered among them. "I was just filming last night. Quentin operates the second camera, and I'll be done shooting soon and then I'll be shooting his movie. It's going to be wild." The longtime friends are helping each other out with their respective films and expect the unorthodox project to hit theaters in April. Speaking about the trailers, Rodriguez added: "I can't say anything about it because those are really surprises. Danny Trejo ['Con Air'] is in one, but there's another one that's huge. People are going to wish that one was the movie." Finally, Rodriguez dropped the bombshell that there is already talk of a "Grind House" sequel, which would bring the fake ads from the first flick to fruition. "If those trailers are great enough," he revealed, "they might be part of the feature we do for the next 'Grind House.'"

I would rather see the WWII pic, but this will probably be good.

Howdy all! More dispatches from the San Diego Comic-Con on the way but I wanted to drop in real quick to tell you about some pretty exciting news. Quentin Tarantino was a surprise guest at the just-finished GRIND HOUSE panel and revealed that he just signed a deal last night for Kurt Russell to star in his portion of the film - "Death Proof" - as the slasher Stuntman Mike. Tarantino said of the Mike character that it's probably one of the best characters he's ever written to which Robert Rodriguez heartily agreed.

Russell wasn't able to be in attendance but Tarantino and Rodriguez were joined by stars of each of their movies like Rosario Dawson, Marley Shelton, Mary Elisabeth Winstead and Rose McGowan. The footage they showed kicked some royal ass and as Tarantino put it, "that's only the first two weeks!" He also clarified the reports that each of their films would only be an hour long saying, "Do you really expect me to do a slasher film that's only an hour long?!" Each will likely run close to 90 minutes with the assorted trailers and goodies (like "Cowgirls in Sweden" and "Machete" with Danny Trejo) in between. Stay tuned to JoBlo.com for more breaking news from the Con!

UPDATE: The official press release hit today announcing the Death Proof casting, and in addition to Kurt Russell and everyone else listed below, Tarantino will also have actresses Vanessa Ferlito (24) and Jordan Ladd (Cabin Fever, Club Dread) on Stuntman Mike's hitlist, as well as the previously named Tracie Thoms (Rent). So the body count will not only be pretty high, but pretty good looking.




Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez were in San Diego for Comic Con this past weekend to give some goodies on their upcoming exploitation combo platter Grind House, and since I’ve been actively following the project with great anticipation, you bet your non-Con-going ass I was at their presentation.




First off, the big news. Tarantino (wearing a custom QT/RR Back to Back T-shirt emulating the AC/DC logo) gave a major casting announcement for the lead role of Stuntman Mike, the murderer in his “slasher” movie Death Proof (and a role previously linked to Mickey Rourke). But rather than just say the actor’s name, he decided to simply blurt out the name of one of the iconic characters he’s played and let the audience figure it out: “Snake Plissken!” Needless to say, the audience went suitably insane.




Yep, Kurt Russell is heading to the dark side for Tarantino’s half of the double feature, playing a murderous and misogynistic muscle-car enthusiast with a major mad-on for a bunch of hot babes. Most of the actresses were also on hand for the panel, and the list of lovely casualties includes Rosario Dawson, Sydney Poitier (daughter of Sidney), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (of Sky High and Final Destination 3), and Marley Shelton and Rose McGowan, both of whom also appear in Rodriguez’s movie. In addition, stunt gal Zoë Bell (who doubled for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill) will portray herself in a major role, and will as expected perform her own stunts.




Tarantino doesn’t start shooting his movie for a few weeks, but Rodriguez is nearly done with his zombie flick Planet Terror, and he brought along an exclusive clip to showcase the vibe they’re aiming for. And hoo boy… talk about excess and lunacy. The footage began with deputy Tom Savini complaining to sheriff Michael Biehn that the suspect in his cruiser bit his finger clean off. Naturally when they go outside the station to check, the car window is smashed and the perpetrator is nowhere to be found. Handcuffed criminal Freddy Rodriguez stands in the door watching the proceedings.




From there we got a hint of the “fake trailer” for Machete, featuring Danny Trejo as an assassin and ladies man (yes, Danny Trejo) who wears a leather trenchcoat that holds about a hundred machetes, and drives a massive street hog motorcycle with a chaingun mounted on the front. Then another montage of scenes from Planet Terror, including actor introductions (verifying the previous casting you heard about first on CHUD!), and Freddy hacking through a hospital of “sickos” (aka zombies, aka infected humans) and supplying a ballistic appendage to newly de-legged stripper Cherry (McGowan). Buckets of wonderfully gratuitous mayhem and splatter, all set to a dated-sounding Carpenter-esque score.




As we’d previously heard, the footage has dropped frames and print grain and scratches applied in post-production to further simulate the grind house experience, which both filmmakers seemed almost overly confident they can and will provide (a claim with which I’ll now wholeheartedly agree). The appearance of the movie is one of the things I maintain could’ve improved Sin City – that film desperately needed to be similarly scuffed up with some digitally added post-production grime.




A few other tidbits from the panel: Tarantino is planning two animated prequels of Kill Bill, one focusing on Bill’s origin and another on The Bride; Rodriguez shot his Grind House segment on digital but Tarantino is shooting on film; the whole shoot will be in Austin, a town that Tarantino has fell in love with; "shared" character Texas Ranger Earl McGraw, played by Michael Parks and previously seen in From Dusk Til Dawn and Kill Bill, will make dual appearances again; the final release is due next Easter and will be two full length movies back-to-back – not the truncated flicks we’d originally heard, but two films of at least 90 minutes and four or more fake trailers sandwiched between them. Tarantino implied (only half jokingly) that moviegoers will not only get their ten bucks worth, but feel gypped afterward by everything else.

Pics of Kurt Russell's Badass Car from Tarantino's Grindhouse Flick, 'DEATH PROOF'!!!
Hey folks, Harry here. It's sort of impossible these nights in Austin to not stumble across Tarantino's set for GRINDHOUSE / DEATH PROOF. If it's a cool place to hang out, drink beer and eat some badass grub, he's been taking it over for sets here in town. The last week and a half - he's been shooting at THE TEXAS CHILI PARLOR - one of the finest bowls of food you'll eat in Austin is their Chili, they have many types - personally I've always preferred the Black Bean & Elgin Sausage Chili. Very yum yum, and a great place to watch a UT football game! And then he's also been shooting at GUERO'S TACO BAR - another very yum yum Mexican food joint here in town. I highly recommend their ALAMBRES, btw. It is very cool that Quentin is really making this his AUSTIN film - with the various places he loves here - as being the sets and locales for this film. The other night - outside Texas Chili Parlor - they had the water trucks hooked up to the rain machines - while they were shooting interior dialogue scenes - where I hear that there was hanging on the wall in the place - was Jack Burton's shirt from BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA - that's an item from Robert Rodriguez's collection. Can't wait to see how it's featured in the scene. I know that in the Texas Chili Parlor doing dialogue was Jordan Ladd, but I don't know who else was shooting that night.
Anyways - the point of this post was to show y'all the DEATH PROOF car that Kurt Russell's Stuntman Mike is driving. And one shot of the GUERO'S location. Thanks to P.S. for the shots:

finally thought all of the negative press surrounding WeinsteinCo.'s Grind House has settled. After production shut down on Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" and the delay of the film we hoped everything was going to be clean sailing from here. Guess again. Today we learned that Aussie fav John Jarratt (Wolf Creek) that he was dumped from Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof". Read on for the story.

John Jarratt has revealed that Quentin Tarantino discourteously dumped him from the filmmaker’s upcoming pic, “Grind House”, according to Moviehole.net.

Tarantino met Jarratt – who is on the trail of a comeback since the success of last year’s “Wolf Creek” – in Australia last year, and gushed over the veteran Oz talent. The Australian actor was reportedly one of Tarantino’s favourite actors, and he looked forward to working with Jarratt in the future. Later, it was said that Jarratt was offered a role in Tarantino’s “Grind house”.

Talking to Woman’s Day, Jarratt says he was contacted in March about doing a role in the film, but never heard another word about it.

"My wife Cody was excited. We'd got the passport thing sorted out and we were all ready to set off for the States with our two kids, just waiting for a start date, so it was a real kick in the guts when nothing happened,'' he told the Aussie mag.

"I'm really bewildered. God knows, Quentin might ring up next week and say he's ready to start, 'Get over here'. And I might do it but I might not. I kind of wish he'd left me alone and it had never happened.''

Jarratt next appears in Greg ‘Wolf Creek’ McLean’s giant crocodile thriller, “Rogue”.

Mercury is just full of good news today.