Actor and badass Danny Trejo has been talking-up the third film in his Machete series for years, a co-worker of mine talked to him one-on-one about a year ago at one these conventions and he confirmed back then that Machete Kills Again In Space was a done deal and actually happening.
Well it seems that’s still his stance in 2015 as he talked to Halloween Daily News (via Coming Soon) and he added Robert Rodriguez will be working on the film this year.
“Robert and I are going to start to do ‘Machete Kills in Space,’ so that’s going to be awesome,” says Trejo. “Absolutely. We’re going to be working on it this year.”
This seems odd, since all we’ve been hearing for months is that Robert’s next feature would be a live-action adaptation of Frank Franzetta and Ralph Bashki’s animated fantasy flick Fire and Ice.
Rodriguez making the rounds himself at conventions showing-off the impressive concept artwork for Fire and Ice to a willing audience. It would be the largest and ambitious project to date for Robert, so it’s odd he’s busy himself with Machete Kills Again In Space when this other film is on the table. Perhaps, there’s yet another production delay and this has left a window open to make this his next movie.
There’s one thing they could do to help a lot of people gather interest and support for the film after Machete Kills took a nose-dive at the box office.
It would be kind of funny and practical to replace Mel Gibson with someone like Kurt Russell, which would be kind of nudge to the revolving actors who played Blofeld in the Bond series. Not to mention in the exploitation genre it was common to see villains recast in sequels, and often to a comedic-effect. Plus, having someone other than Gibson might help box office which he seems to be driving factor to audiences avoiding projects with him in them.
Russell seems to be a bit more open to returning to his action roots taking a supporting role in Fast and Furious 7. It might not be the hardest sell to Mr. Snake Plissken who is now working on his second film with Quentin Tarantino with The Hateful Eight. Robert just happens to be best pals with Tarantino who I’m sure could help his friend by convincing Russell to do the film.
You might remember that there was going to third and final John Carpenter Escape From film which did focus on a space station which never happened but ended-up being the inspiration for the Guy Pierce film Lockout.
This isn’t the first time the Tarantino/Rodriguez relation has come into play, as it was how Robert De Niro was talked-into taking a lead role in the first film. De Niro being a major player in Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. They sort of need an actor with a bit more gravitas than Gibson who wasn’t strong in Kills. Russell made a decent oddball baddie in Death Proof and the project could be fun enough for him to consider it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oHTw3s-hAs
The film given a teaser trailer at the opening of the last movie is likely using all the existing props, sets, and costumes created for the unmade Barbarella remake Robert Rodriguez was putting together with Rose McGowan in the lead role. All that science fiction stuff is just sitting in his studio collecting dust.
Here’s what Rodriguez had to say about the film back a while back comparing it to Bond’s Moonraker. This comes from MTV around the same time reports suggested that both sequels had been given the greenlight, but Space had been stuck in development due to poor box office of Kills. I’d love it to become a mix of Moonraker and the Mexican-shot sci-fi classic Total Recall.
“It is a space opera. It does take place in space. Machete has to go into space,” Rodriguez confirmed. “It’s so absurd but it makes sense. You’ve got to go somewhere new in a third part — why not go into space? It’s going to be so fun. It’s played straight. Remember ‘Moonraker’? It’s going to be like ‘Machete’ and ‘Moonraker’…..You see him in a space shuttle,” Rodriguez told us. “The bad guy escapes the planet. ‘Part 3’ has to take place in space. Space babes, a machete-shaped lightsaber. You gotta have it!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwudExxVtV0
SOURCE: HALLOWEEN DAILY NEWS