Eli Roth Talks Sci-Fi Epic Endangered Species And Thanksgiving

Empire Magazine spoke to Eli Roth at Cannes, and have now (almost a week after everybody got home from the festival) seen fit to reveal what the conversation uncovered. As discussed before, Roth is planning to shoot a feature length expansion of his Grindhouse trailer Thanksgiving, and to do it fast, quick and cheap. He's restating that the film will be shot in just eighteen days, and compares the approach to how he shot his film-within-the-film for Inglourious Basterds. That full quote after the break, as well as a little on his imminent sci-fi epic, now revealed to be called Endangered Species.

The way I did Nation's Pride, that's how I want to shoot Thanksgiving. I just want to go, go, go. Get as much footage, and as many kills as possible, and not be self-conscious. Because when you're moving at that speed, you're not thinking, you're just feeling and you're going on instinct. And that's where the best stuff comes from. There's an energy to that Grindhouse trailer for Thanksgiving that, for me caught the spirit of the movie. And I was like, 'What if I did this for three weeks?' No pretensions.

The idea is to whip up Thanksgiving at the tail end of the slower, more deliberate and expensive shoot for his long-promised action picture. It seems like a slip-of-the-tongue got Empire a little scoop on that matter. Here's Roth again:

Endangered Species. And that's the first time I've uttered those two words. You have an exclusive on it.

That's an intriguing title and begs the question – what endangered species is this? Humanity, I would assume... or is there some kind of The Happening (or some kind of not at all like The Happening) 'revenge of nature' plot afoot, with endangered species rising up against us? I'm favouring the former.

The title also crystalises the epic scale that Roth has long promised for the film – this is an Endangered Species, not an Endangered City or Endangered Girl Guide Group. Much of the fun with the Hostel films was the social and political subtext, and I'd imagine the same will be true here. I can't wait to find out just what underlying premise Roth  has drummed up, and what he's driving at with it.