
Tonight I got a phone call from a friend claiming I was quoted in a Hostel: Part II television advertisement. At first I didn’t believe him. It had to be a joke, right? Nope. Turns out it happened. Of course the ad was shown on MTV (demographics and such), so I sat there for almost two hours watching the former music video channel (something I wouldn’t recommend, as a result I feel dumber). And there it was, not one but TWO QUOTES from /Film’s review of Hostel 2.
Check out the TV advertisement after the jump, followed by our fanboy encounter with director Eli Roth.
Disclaimer: The following will probably make me comes off as a “fanboy”. And some of you might think this is “unprofessional”, and truth is, may-be it is. I started blogging about film because I loved it. And I became a blogger instead of a “journalist” for the sole reason that I could mark out to my fanboy passions, and help promote some of the projects that interest me (the idea is that there are probably others who have my same cinematic sensibilities).
That said, we’ve been really lucky to interview some of the artists, actors and directors we really admire respect. And over the last year as we have grown as a site, we’ve been really lucky to have a few of our favorite directors recognize our work (may-be only because we tend to write alot of articles about our favorite directors, which in turn they somehow discover).
- Late last year we sat down with Darren Aronofsky, who has made one of our favorite films of all time (Requiem for a Dream), and told us that he reads /Film “regularly.”
- Before I became a movie blogger/journalist, Kevin Smith was my inspiration to become a screenwriter/director. While my feature film never went anywhere, he greatly influenced my life (I’m not getting paid to watch and write about movies, how cool is that?) and still remains one of my favorite directors (Clerks II was on my Top 10 Films of 2006 list, even). Smith wrote us to correct a factual error in a news story, telling us that he was a “Longtime reader, first-time writer-inner” and that he appreciates “all the cyber ink you’ve thrown my way.” Very Cool.
- And on a lesser scale, Fido director Andrew Currie quoted a line of our review back to us during our interview. Later we were quoted on the film’s theatrical movie poster (our first poster).
- And then last week happened.
We got a chance to see Hostel: Part II last week and enjoyed it a lot (read our review here). Eli Roth was in attendance and we told him we really enjoyed the flick. He told us to write a review, so we had one up that night.
The next day we got to interview Roth about the film. Even if you don’t like Roth’s films, you have to admire him from a film geek prospective. He can talk. One of the guys who saw the film the night before and didn’t care for it much came out of the interview with a newfound respect for the movie and filmmaker. That’s Eli. And although none of Roth’s films have made it on our favorite list, he is one of our favorite directors. We feel the same way about Robert Rodriguez.
At the conclusion of the interview I slipped Roth my business card and told him we did in fact write a review for the flick. He stared at the business card for a few seconds and said “Slashfilm….. aren’t you the guys who…. uhhh” I stood there while he thought back for a second thinking “oh no, he’s probably going to say something that we hadn’t posted, as our site because of the word “slash” sometimes gets confused for other horror sites (which ones, we don’t know). He continued “You were the guys who put the video up of Kurt Russell throwing his Nachos at me. I smiled and said “Yes.” He quickly snapped “That was Awesome! Where did you find that footage?” I told him we found it hidden within the b-roll on the EPK. Roth told us how he sent the link to a bunch of his friends which is really cool.







June 7th, 2007 at 12:13 am
How awesome you could actually come with your name in a commercial these days… People who’ve just started blogging will really take this as an example, it will keep you motivated :P
June 7th, 2007 at 12:15 am
I am so proud. Can I have lunch with you or are you too cool for us little people?
June 7th, 2007 at 2:36 am
Peter, you’re not only quoted on tv but in magazines and newspapers too!
In this week’s time out ny and village voice you’re quoted as well. Congrats!!
I’m so happy for you. It couldn’t happen for a better site and thank god its
someone who is genuine about their opinion, one more quote from Pete
Hammond and I swear!
Secondly, I’m glad you bring up the whole ‘fanboy’ journalist thing. I get a ton
of flack from journalists when i’m remotely excited about interviewing
somebody or gush on how much i liked a movie, so thank you for saying that
and maybe others will learn to respect this.
Thirdly, I didn’t like Hostel Part II (stock characters and a cop out ending
the slut, the heroine and the shy virgin were insulting) but i had a chance to
meet Roth last night and i even explained to him my problems and he
answered back truthfully defending the film. Cool guy.
All in all, very excited to see you quoted- in fact when I was reading time out
on the subway when i saw slash quoted, i yelled out awesome! and people
looked at me.
June 7th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Thank you for this great article. I am a blogger with a relatively new site (www.dailyfilmdose.blogspot.com) and /film was one of my influences to form my blog.
Thanks,
Alan
June 7th, 2007 at 10:23 am
Congrats, Mr. Sciretta, congrats. I’m with Ms. Meadows up top, though, on the lunch or dinner thing. I’m kidding, of course. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
June 8th, 2007 at 3:19 am
CONGRATS!!! Never ever ever ever be apologetic for being a film fan nor for wanting to share uber cool stuff that happens to you as a result of your work on your site. As a blogger, you 100% should share this stuff with your readers so they can celebrate with you. We’re BLOGS, not the fricken New York Times. Again, huge props and congrats!
June 8th, 2007 at 4:21 am
hey little brother!
I’m so proud of you!!! CONGRADULATIONS!!! but then again if you called me or emailed me back every once in a while you would know how proud everyone back home is of you!!!!
love your big sister!!!!
June 19th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
A big congratulations, seriously. I never comment on articles I read here, but felt that this deserved SOMETHING be said.