Robert Rodriguez rose to fame with a good deal of help from Quentin Tarantino (Inglorious Basterds); after Tarantino had a cameo in Desperado, wrote the screenplay (and starred in) From Dusk Till Dawn, which Rodriguez directed, he directed a scene in Rodriguez’s Sin City, and they both worked together on Grindhouse; but more recently Rob has been breaking out on his own, and has established himself as a big name writer, director, and producer, and is currently being mentioned a good deal in the press regarding the recently released Predators; which he produced and wrote the early script drafts.
Today however it’s another Rodriguez movie that’s gaining the most limelight, as his next directorial project; Machete; just had it’s second official trailer released online.
The film is an expansion of a fake trailer that Rob created for use in Grindhouse, and focusses on a renegade former Federale known as Machete, who is hired to murder an anti-immigrant Senator, but gets set up, and bands together with a group of illegals in order to hunt the people that double crossed him.
It’s reads like a cheap and tacky B-movie that wouldn’t really garner much attention if it weren’t made by Rodriguez, however it is gaining a great deal of attention, and has attracted a pretty big-name cast that includes the likes of Goodfellas’ Robert de Niro (as the corrupt senator), Danny Trejo (Desperado) as Machete himself, Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar), Cheech Marin (Once Upon a Time in Mexico), Lindsay Lohan (Mean Girls), and Jessica Alba (Dark Angel), as allies of Machete, as well as Steven Seagal (Under Seige).
Principal photography began on July 29th last year, and the movie itself is due to be released on September 3rd 2010 (making it the first Seagal film to be released theatrically since 2002’s Half Past Dead), but for those of you who can’t wait that long, you can always watch the Rodriguez producers Predators, or check out the two Machete trailers available below; the first being the Cinco de Mayo trailer, and the second is the newly released official trailer.
