Eli Roth
Encyclopedia
Eli Raphael Roth is an American
film director
, producer
, writer
and actor
. He is known for his role as Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz in Quentin Tarantino's
Inglourious Basterds for which he won both a SAG Award (Best Ensemble) and a BFCA Critic's Choice Award (Best Acting Ensemble). He is part of a group of filmmakers dubbed the Splat Pack
, because of their dedication to the genre and their relentless horror films, which reinvented the genre for the modern age.
, to Dr. Sheldon Roth, a psychiatrist
/psychoanalyst and assistant clinical professor at Harvard Medical School
, and Cora Roth, a painter
. His grandparents emigrated from Austria
, Russia
, and Poland
; Roth was raised Jewish.
Roth began shooting films at the age of eight after watching Ridley Scott
's Alien
(1979). He made over 50 short films with his brothers Adam and Gabe before graduating at Newton South High School
and attending film school (the Tisch School of the Arts) at New York University
, from which he graduated in 1994. By the age of 20, and while still a student at NYU, Roth ran the office of producer
Frederick Zollo, eventually leaving to devote himself to writing full-time.
Actress Camryn Manheim
gave Roth one of his first jobs in Hollywood, putting him on as an extra on The Practice
when he first moved to Los Angeles
. Roth would stay in Manheim's dressing room working on his scripts while she filmed the show. The two had met and become friends while Roth was working for Fred Zollo in New York City. Roth also met Manheim's cousin Howie Nuchow (former EVP of Mandalay Sports Entertainment and also from the Boston, MA area) at Camryn's family passover seder—this led to Roth's first animation project "Chowdaheads" in the year that followed. Roth also co-wrote a project called "The Extra" with Manheim; Manheim would later sell the pitch to producer (and former CEO and Chairman of Fox Studios) Bill Mechanic's Pandemonium company.
He graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1994 at NYU.
's Reservoir Dogs
. The film was nominated for a Student Academy Award in 1995, and won its division (Division III.)
Through his internship with producer Fred Zollo in years prior, Roth met David Lynch
and remained in contact with him over the years, eventually producing content for Lynch with his fledgling website in the late 1990s. Roth met film and TV composer Angelo Badalamenti
through Lynch; he would later use Badalamenti's music in his first feature film. He also met a member of special effects company KNB EFX through Lynch; KNB EFX would later contribute to his first feature.
Roth moved from NYC to LA in 1999; shortly thereafter he wrote, directed, edited, produced, animated, and provided voices for a series of animated shorts called Chowdaheads
for Mandalay Sports Entertainment
. The shorts were intended to be shown between WCW Monday Nitro
pro wrestling matches, but the C.E.O. of WCW
who had green lit the project was fired the weekend before they were supposed to be aired, and they were never actually broadcast, despite being completed. Roth's friend Noah Belson co-wrote the shorts and provided the other character voices.
After receiving financial backup from the website Z.com to deliver a 5-minute pilot, Roth wrote, directed, animated and produced a series of stop-motion shorts in mid-2000 called The Rotten Fruit. The company (z.com) folded shortly after several episodes were completed, and the domain name "z.com" was picked up by Nissan years later to promote their sports car of the same name. A portion of the work for The Rotten Fruit was done at the Snake Pit studios in Burbank using miniature sets, poseable clay and foam figures, two high-end digital still cameras, and a pair of Macintosh
computers. Roth's friend Noah Belson co-wrote the shorts and performed the character voices along with Roth.
, Iceland, in 1991. Much of the script was written while Roth was working as a production assistant in 1996 for Howard Stern
's movie Private Parts
.
The film was made in 2001 on a budget of $1.5 million raised from private investors. Roth sold the film to Lionsgate at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival for $3.5 million, the biggest sale of the festival that year. The film was released in 2003 and was Lionsgate's highest grossing film of the year, earning $22 million at the U.S. box office and $35 million worldwide. Lionsgate used the theatrical success of Cabin Fever to raise the money to purchase Artisan Entertainment
. Lionsgate stock rose from $1.98 a share at the time Cabin Fever was purchased at the Toronto Film Festival to nearly $6 a share after Cabin Fever was released theatrically. The film made Roth a new star in the horror genre. In his 2004 Premiere Magazine interview for Kill Bill, Quentin Tarantino called Cabin Fever his favorite new film and Roth "the future of horror."
, however, all the exteriors were shot in the Czech Republic
. The story line is naively simple – three friends are lured to visit a hostel in which they think their sexual fantasies will come true. Instead, they drop into the clutches of an international syndicate offering a first-hand torturing and killing experience to the sadistic pleasure of rich tourists. The film was voted the No. 1 scariest movie moment on the Bravo TV special 30 Even Scarier Movie Moments. Empire Magazine readers voted Hostel the Best Horror Film of 2007.
Roth reportedly turned down numerous studio directing jobs to make Hostel. He took a directing salary of only $10,000 on Hostel in order to keep the budget as low as possible so there would be no limitations on the violence. In January 2006, film critic David Edelstein
in New York Magazine
credited Roth with creating the horror sub-genre 'torture porn,' or 'gorno,' using excessive violence to excite audiences like a sexual act.
Le Monde
critic Jean-François Raugier named Hostel as the Best Film of the Decade in the January 2010 issue of Film Comment Magazine.
, a country mostly unfamiliar to the non-European audience. Roth argued that he selected Slovakia as a setting for the picture to show Americans' lack of knowledge. "Americans do not even know that this country exists. My film is not a geographical work but aims to show Americans' ignorance of the world around them," The official Slovak response to the movie was an invitation to the director to visit the country. "I think I have to be a man and go there and face the music," director Eli Roth was quoted by Reuters as saying. He also apologised to Slovaks for depicting them as maniacs. In later reports, Roth appeared to backtrack, saying he was scared to visit. "I have a feeling that now I've made the film, I will get beaten and tortured in Slovakia," virgin.net Movie News section quoted him as saying.
's segment of the film. Roth and cowriter Jeff Rendell won a 2007 Spike TV
Scream Award for best "screamplay" for their writing in Grindhouse, sharing the honor with Quentin Tarantino
, Robert Rodriguez
, Rob Zombie
and Edgar Wright
. Roth also provided the narration for the faux trailer. According to IMDb, Roth will be directing a feature-film version of Thanksgiving to be released in 2013.
Lionsgate attributed the lower grosses to the summer release date opposite summer blockbusters such as Shrek 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Ocean's 13, as well as the film's workprint being leaked from a Lionsgate studio executive online prior to the film's release. Close to 2 million illegal workprint downloads were tracked the day Hostel 2 opened theatrically in the U.S.
Hostel Part II was nominated for six Spike TV Scream Awards, including best horror film and best director. It was on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 20 best horror films of the past 20 years.
, Roth was quoted saying "Trailer Trash is not a horror film, it's a comedy. It will be very R-rated and completely insane, and I'm producing it with Mike Fleiss
".
He is currently producing a kung fu movie entitled The Man with the Iron Fist
. It is being written, directed, and scored by The RZA, who stars in the film. According to Roth, Quentin Tarantino
is involved with the movie as well. In a recent interview with CHUD, Roth said:
Roth has also been a frequent contributor to DVD extras content (liner notes and video commentary) for horror film distributors Grindhouse Releasing
/Box Office Spectaculars, particularly on two of his favorite films Juan Piquer Simon
's Pieces and the upcoming North American DVD release of Lucio Fulci
's Cat in the Brain
.
Men's Fitness
magazine voted Roth Most Fit Director in their July 2006 issue, a title Roth takes very seriously, with a strict workout routine that he documents on the Hostel DVDs. Roth claims he treats every red carpet like it was a Milan runway, and often jokes that he only makes films as a way to live out his lifelong dream of being a male supermodel. He spoke of his love for fashion in his interview in the October 2007 issue of Italian Vogue.
Roth is an animator, having written, produced, directed, animated and voiced two series: Chowdaheads (1999) and The Rotten Fruit
(2000). Chowdaheads was co-written and co-voiced with friend Noah Belson, and was made with traditional hand-drawn animation. The Rotten Fruit, which Roth again co-wrote and co-voiced with Belson, was made with stop-motion animation done with foam puppets.
Roth also participated in the 2006 animated comedy film, Disaster!, voicing the lumberjack during the opening moments of the film. The comical 'death by squirrels' the lumberjack suffers is inspired by Roth's gruesome and often ironic ways of killing characters in his own films.
Roth recorded an audio commentary
for Troma's 2005 DVD release of Blood Sucking Freaks
having no formal credit, billed only as a "Blood and Guts Expert." The DVD is one of Troma's highest selling. Roth often makes uncredited cameos in Troma films. He made an unbilled cameo as a Tromaville citizen in Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV
in 2000.
Roth had a role in Quentin Tarantino's half of Grindhouse
, Death Proof
, in a scene with Jordan Ladd. Tarantino was so impressed by Roth's brief role as Justin in Cabin Fever, he asked Roth to audition for the film. Roth left his preproduction on Hostel Part II in Prague to fly to Austin, Texas
for one week to film the scene at the Texas Chili Parlor. Roth said working as an actor for Tarantino was like taking a masterclass in directing, and said the only directors he would ever act for were people who had won the Palme d'Or
at the Cannes Film Festival
. Roth also made appearances in several projects that David Lynch
directed for Davidlynch.com.
Roth was profiled on the G4
TV show Icons, and was on the cover of Forbes
magazine's "Hollywood's most profitable stars" issue.
Eli Roth brought a Raiders of the Lost Ark
shot-for-shot remake by kids to the attention of both Harry Knowles
and Steven Spielberg
. Roth had a copy in his collection of videos for years before showing it at Harry Knowles' Butt-Numb-A-Thon
film festival in December, 2002. The response was so overwhelming that Roth took the tape to his very first meeting at Dreamworks
, and gave it to an executive to give to Steven Spielberg. The executive called Roth the next week saying that Spielberg loved it and wanted to contact the filmmakers. Roth had never met the filmmakers, but Google searched every name in the credits until he got a hold of Jayson Lamb, the cinematographer. The three filmmakers, Lamb, Chris Strompolis, and Eric Zala (a former Activision
employee), had not spoken to each other in years when Roth contacted them out of the blue, saying that Spielberg wanted to write them a letter. This reunited the friends, who began touring the world doing charity screenings with the film. Roth felt that the film was so powerful he had to do whatever he could to make sure fans around the world saw it. Roth introduced the film at its premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre
in May 2008, five and a half years after he first got the tape to Knowles and Spielberg.
Roth co-starred with Brad Pitt
in Quentin Tarantino's World War II
epic Inglourious Basterds, playing Donny Donowitz, a.k.a. "The Bear Jew." He also guest directed the Nazi propaganda
film-within-the-film, Nation's Pride.
Roth wrote, directed and acted in a P.S.A. for P.E.T.A. about the link between violence against animals leading to violence against people. Roth won a Telly Award for his spot (Public Service Category: Bronze.)
Roth, through his company Arcade with Eric Newman and Strike producer Marc Abraham, produced the horror film The Last Exorcism, (originally titled Cotton) which was directed by Daniel Stamm. It was completed in December 2009 and in February 2010 retitled The Last Exorcism. The Last Exorcism, which cost $1.5 million to produce, opened to over $20 million dollars in the U.S., and earned the #1 opening spots in Canada and the U.K. The film was completely paid for by selling off a few foreign territories and in profits before shooting began. It earned over $40 million dollars at the U.S. box office, totaling $70 million worldwide. Roth also had a cameo as a contest emcee in Alexandre Aja
's Piranha 3-D
.
1 Normal cameo
.
2 Flashback
cameo.
3 Possible upcoming role.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. He is known for his role as Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz in Quentin Tarantino's
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
Inglourious Basterds for which he won both a SAG Award (Best Ensemble) and a BFCA Critic's Choice Award (Best Acting Ensemble). He is part of a group of filmmakers dubbed the Splat Pack
Splat Pack
The Splat Pack is a collection of filmmakers who, since 2002, have directed a large number of horror films.-History:The term was coined by Alan Jones of Total Film. The group has been credited with bringing back ultra-violent movies, as well as moving away from PG-13 rated movies and into the...
, because of their dedication to the genre and their relentless horror films, which reinvented the genre for the modern age.
Early life
Roth was born in Newton, MassachusettsNewton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...
, to Dr. Sheldon Roth, a psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
/psychoanalyst and assistant clinical professor at Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
, and Cora Roth, a painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
. His grandparents emigrated from Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
; Roth was raised Jewish.
Roth began shooting films at the age of eight after watching Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...
's Alien
Alien (film)
Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature which...
(1979). He made over 50 short films with his brothers Adam and Gabe before graduating at Newton South High School
Newton South High School
Newton South High School is one of two public high schools in the city of Newton, Massachusetts, the other being Newton North.-Mission statement:Newton South High School, a community of students, parents, faculty, and staff,...
and attending film school (the Tisch School of the Arts) at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, from which he graduated in 1994. By the age of 20, and while still a student at NYU, Roth ran the office of producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
Frederick Zollo, eventually leaving to devote himself to writing full-time.
Actress Camryn Manheim
Camryn Manheim
Camryn Manheim is an American actress known primarily for her roles as attorney Ellenor Frutt on ABC's The Practice and Delia Banks on CBS's Ghost Whisperer and as Elvis's mother, Gladys Presley in the 2005 mini-series Elvis....
gave Roth one of his first jobs in Hollywood, putting him on as an extra on The Practice
The Practice
The Practice is an American legal drama created by David E. Kelley centering on the partners and associates at a Boston law firm. Running for eight seasons from 1997 to 2004, the show won the Emmy in 1998 and 1999 for Best Drama Series, and spawned the successful and lighter spin-off series Boston...
when he first moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Roth would stay in Manheim's dressing room working on his scripts while she filmed the show. The two had met and become friends while Roth was working for Fred Zollo in New York City. Roth also met Manheim's cousin Howie Nuchow (former EVP of Mandalay Sports Entertainment and also from the Boston, MA area) at Camryn's family passover seder—this led to Roth's first animation project "Chowdaheads" in the year that followed. Roth also co-wrote a project called "The Extra" with Manheim; Manheim would later sell the pitch to producer (and former CEO and Chairman of Fox Studios) Bill Mechanic's Pandemonium company.
He graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1994 at NYU.
Film career
In his final years (1993/1994) at NYU film school, Roth wrote and directed a student film called Restaurant Dogs as an homage to Quentin TarantinoQuentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
's Reservoir Dogs
Reservoir Dogs
Reservoir Dogs is an American crime film marking debut of director and writer Quentin Tarantino. It depicts the events before and after a botched diamond heist, but not the heist itself. Reservoir Dogs stars an ensemble cast: Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, and...
. The film was nominated for a Student Academy Award in 1995, and won its division (Division III.)
Through his internship with producer Fred Zollo in years prior, Roth met David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
and remained in contact with him over the years, eventually producing content for Lynch with his fledgling website in the late 1990s. Roth met film and TV composer Angelo Badalamenti
Angelo Badalamenti
Angelo Badalamenti is an American composer, known for his movie soundtrack work for director David Lynch, notably Blue Velvet, the Twin Peaks saga and Mulholland Drive...
through Lynch; he would later use Badalamenti's music in his first feature film. He also met a member of special effects company KNB EFX through Lynch; KNB EFX would later contribute to his first feature.
Roth moved from NYC to LA in 1999; shortly thereafter he wrote, directed, edited, produced, animated, and provided voices for a series of animated shorts called Chowdaheads
Chowdaheads
Chowdaheads is an animated television series created by Noah Belson and Eli Roth. The show was originally scheduled to air during WCW wrestling events but it never actually aired. Roth, the co-creator of the series went on to a successful career in film directing with such films as Cabin Fever...
for Mandalay Sports Entertainment
Mandalay Sports Entertainment
Mandalay Sports Entertainment is a subsidiary of Mandalay Entertainment Group. MSE owns a number of minor-league baseball teams, via its Mandalay Baseball subsidiary, and is responsible for managing several more.-Teams owned:-Teams managed:...
. The shorts were intended to be shown between WCW Monday Nitro
WCW Monday Nitro
WCW Monday Nitro was a weekly professional wrestling telecast produced by World Championship Wrestling, created by Ted Turner and Eric Bischoff. The show aired Monday nights on TNT, going head-to-head with the World Wrestling Federation's Monday Night Raw from September 4, 1995 to March 26, 2001...
pro wrestling matches, but the C.E.O. of WCW
Eric Bischoff
Eric Aaron Bischoff is an American entrepreneur, and professional wrestling booker and on-screen personality currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling...
who had green lit the project was fired the weekend before they were supposed to be aired, and they were never actually broadcast, despite being completed. Roth's friend Noah Belson co-wrote the shorts and provided the other character voices.
After receiving financial backup from the website Z.com to deliver a 5-minute pilot, Roth wrote, directed, animated and produced a series of stop-motion shorts in mid-2000 called The Rotten Fruit. The company (z.com) folded shortly after several episodes were completed, and the domain name "z.com" was picked up by Nissan years later to promote their sports car of the same name. A portion of the work for The Rotten Fruit was done at the Snake Pit studios in Burbank using miniature sets, poseable clay and foam figures, two high-end digital still cameras, and a pair of Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
computers. Roth's friend Noah Belson co-wrote the shorts and performed the character voices along with Roth.
Cabin Fever
In 1995, a year after graduating from NYU, Roth cowrote Cabin Fever with his roommate and friend from NYU, Randy Pearlstein. Roth based the premise of the script on his own encounter with a skin infection he contracted while training horses at a farm in SelfossSelfoss (town)
Selfoss is a town in southern Iceland on the banks of Ölfusá river.It is part, and seat, of the municipality Árborg. The Ring Road runs through the town on its way between Hveragerði and Hella...
, Iceland, in 1991. Much of the script was written while Roth was working as a production assistant in 1996 for Howard Stern
Howard Stern
Howard Allan Stern is an American radio personality, television host, author, and actor best known for his radio show, which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style...
's movie Private Parts
Private Parts (1997 film)
Private Parts is a 1997 American biographical comedy film produced by Ivan Reitman and released by Paramount Pictures. Written by Len Blum and Michael Kalesniko, the film is an adaptation of the 1993 best-selling book of the same name by radio personality Howard Stern, who stars as himself. It...
.
The film was made in 2001 on a budget of $1.5 million raised from private investors. Roth sold the film to Lionsgate at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival for $3.5 million, the biggest sale of the festival that year. The film was released in 2003 and was Lionsgate's highest grossing film of the year, earning $22 million at the U.S. box office and $35 million worldwide. Lionsgate used the theatrical success of Cabin Fever to raise the money to purchase Artisan Entertainment
Artisan Entertainment
Artisan Entertainment Inc. was a privately held independent American movie studio until it was purchased by a Canadian studio, Lionsgate, in 2003. At the time of its acquisition, Artisan had a library of thousands of films developed through acquisition, original production, and production and...
. Lionsgate stock rose from $1.98 a share at the time Cabin Fever was purchased at the Toronto Film Festival to nearly $6 a share after Cabin Fever was released theatrically. The film made Roth a new star in the horror genre. In his 2004 Premiere Magazine interview for Kill Bill, Quentin Tarantino called Cabin Fever his favorite new film and Roth "the future of horror."
Hostel
Roth's second feature film, Hostel, was made in 2005 on a budget of a little more than $4 million. It opened to No. 1 at the box office in January 2006, taking in $20 million over its opening weekend. It went on to gross $80 million worldwide in box office, and more than $180 million worldwide on DVD. In April 2006 on Eli Roth's birthday, Hostel opened on DVD at No. 1. The movie plot is said to take place in SlovakiaSlovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, however, all the exteriors were shot in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. The story line is naively simple – three friends are lured to visit a hostel in which they think their sexual fantasies will come true. Instead, they drop into the clutches of an international syndicate offering a first-hand torturing and killing experience to the sadistic pleasure of rich tourists. The film was voted the No. 1 scariest movie moment on the Bravo TV special 30 Even Scarier Movie Moments. Empire Magazine readers voted Hostel the Best Horror Film of 2007.
Roth reportedly turned down numerous studio directing jobs to make Hostel. He took a directing salary of only $10,000 on Hostel in order to keep the budget as low as possible so there would be no limitations on the violence. In January 2006, film critic David Edelstein
David Edelstein
David Edelstein is the chief film critic for New York Magazine, as well as the film critic for NPR's Fresh Air and CBS Sunday Morning. He lives in Brooklyn, New York....
in New York Magazine
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
credited Roth with creating the horror sub-genre 'torture porn,' or 'gorno,' using excessive violence to excite audiences like a sexual act.
Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
critic Jean-François Raugier named Hostel as the Best Film of the Decade in the January 2010 issue of Film Comment Magazine.
Controversy
In the country supposedly depicted in the movie, the Slovak Republic, it generated unanimously indignant reaction in general public and official representatives. The artistic qualities of the movie aside, the very story is said to have slandered SlovakiaSlovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, a country mostly unfamiliar to the non-European audience. Roth argued that he selected Slovakia as a setting for the picture to show Americans' lack of knowledge. "Americans do not even know that this country exists. My film is not a geographical work but aims to show Americans' ignorance of the world around them," The official Slovak response to the movie was an invitation to the director to visit the country. "I think I have to be a man and go there and face the music," director Eli Roth was quoted by Reuters as saying. He also apologised to Slovaks for depicting them as maniacs. In later reports, Roth appeared to backtrack, saying he was scared to visit. "I have a feeling that now I've made the film, I will get beaten and tortured in Slovakia," virgin.net Movie News section quoted him as saying.
Thanksgiving
In 2007, Roth directed the faux trailer segment Thanksgiving for Grindhouse in addition to appearing in Death Proof, Quentin TarantinoQuentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
's segment of the film. Roth and cowriter Jeff Rendell won a 2007 Spike TV
Spike TV
Spike is an American cable television channel. It launched on March 7, 1983 as The Nashville Network , a joint venture of WSM, Inc...
Scream Award for best "screamplay" for their writing in Grindhouse, sharing the honor with Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
, Robert Rodriguez
Robert Rodriguez
Robert Anthony Rodríguez is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He shoots and produces many of his films in his native Texas and Mexico. He has directed such films as Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Sin City, Planet...
, Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie is an American musician, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He founded the heavy metal band White Zombie and has been nominated three times as a solo artist for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.Zombie has also established a career as a film director, creating the...
and Edgar Wright
Edgar Wright
Edgar Howard Wright is an English film and television director and writer. He is most famous for his work with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost on the films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, the TV series Spaced, and for directing the film Scott Pilgrim vs...
. Roth also provided the narration for the faux trailer. According to IMDb, Roth will be directing a feature-film version of Thanksgiving to be released in 2013.
Hostel: Part II
Hostel: Part II opened in sixth place with $8.2 million and went on to total $17.6 million by the end of its theatrical run. The film cost $10.2 million and made $35 million dollars worldwide and another $50 million on DVD and pay television.Lionsgate attributed the lower grosses to the summer release date opposite summer blockbusters such as Shrek 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Ocean's 13, as well as the film's workprint being leaked from a Lionsgate studio executive online prior to the film's release. Close to 2 million illegal workprint downloads were tracked the day Hostel 2 opened theatrically in the U.S.
Hostel Part II was nominated for six Spike TV Scream Awards, including best horror film and best director. It was on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 20 best horror films of the past 20 years.
Endangered Species
Eli Roth announced that after Inglourious Basterds was done he would begin work on his next film, Endangered Species.Other projects
He has talked about doing a film called Trailer Trash, a film made of fake trailers; according to an appearance on G4G4 (TV channel)
G4, also known as G4 TV, is an American cable- and satellite-television channel originally geared primarily toward young adult viewers, originally based on the world of video games...
, Roth was quoted saying "Trailer Trash is not a horror film, it's a comedy. It will be very R-rated and completely insane, and I'm producing it with Mike Fleiss
Mike Fleiss
Mike Fleiss is the creator, producer, and writer of The WB's Superstar USA, The Bachelorette, The Will and High School Reunion. His first reality TV romance show was Who Wants To Marry A Multi-Millionaire...
".
He is currently producing a kung fu movie entitled The Man with the Iron Fist
The Man with the Iron Fist
The Man with the Iron Fists is an upcoming action martial arts film directed by RZA and starring Russell Crowe, RZA, Dave Batista, Rick Yune, Pam Grier and Lucy Liu.-Plot:...
. It is being written, directed, and scored by The RZA, who stars in the film. According to Roth, Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
is involved with the movie as well. In a recent interview with CHUD, Roth said:
Roth has also been a frequent contributor to DVD extras content (liner notes and video commentary) for horror film distributors Grindhouse Releasing
Grindhouse Releasing
Grindhouse Releasing is a Hollywood-based cult film distribution company owned by director/actor Sage Stallone and headed up by film editor Bob Murawski...
/Box Office Spectaculars, particularly on two of his favorite films Juan Piquer Simon
Juan Piquer Simón
Juan Piquer Simón was a Spanish film director most well known for directing the cult classic horror exploitation films, Pieces and Slugs: The Movie ....
's Pieces and the upcoming North American DVD release of Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his directorial work on gore films, including Zombie and The Beyond , although he made films in genres as diverse as giallo, western, and comedy...
's Cat in the Brain
A Cat in the Brain
Cat in the Brain is a 1990 Italian horror-slasher film written and directed by Italian horror filmmaker Lucio Fulci....
.
Men's Fitness
Men's Fitness
Men's Fitness is a men's magazine published by American Media, Inc and founded in the United States in 1987. The premier issue featured Michael Pare from the television series The Greatest American Hero....
magazine voted Roth Most Fit Director in their July 2006 issue, a title Roth takes very seriously, with a strict workout routine that he documents on the Hostel DVDs. Roth claims he treats every red carpet like it was a Milan runway, and often jokes that he only makes films as a way to live out his lifelong dream of being a male supermodel. He spoke of his love for fashion in his interview in the October 2007 issue of Italian Vogue.
Roth is an animator, having written, produced, directed, animated and voiced two series: Chowdaheads (1999) and The Rotten Fruit
The Rotten Fruit
The Rotten Fruit is an animated television series created by Noah Belson and Eli Roth. The show was about a rock and roll band that were pieces of fruit. The tagline was "They drink. They shag. They rock. They're fruit." Roth, the co-creator of the series went on to a successful career in film...
(2000). Chowdaheads was co-written and co-voiced with friend Noah Belson, and was made with traditional hand-drawn animation. The Rotten Fruit, which Roth again co-wrote and co-voiced with Belson, was made with stop-motion animation done with foam puppets.
Roth also participated in the 2006 animated comedy film, Disaster!, voicing the lumberjack during the opening moments of the film. The comical 'death by squirrels' the lumberjack suffers is inspired by Roth's gruesome and often ironic ways of killing characters in his own films.
Roth recorded an audio commentary
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
for Troma's 2005 DVD release of Blood Sucking Freaks
Blood Sucking Freaks
Blood Sucking Freaks is a 1976 horror-exploitation film. Shot under the title Sardu: Master of the Screaming Virgins, it was retitled The Incredible Torture Show during its original theatrical run....
having no formal credit, billed only as a "Blood and Guts Expert." The DVD is one of Troma's highest selling. Roth often makes uncredited cameos in Troma films. He made an unbilled cameo as a Tromaville citizen in Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV
Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV
Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger Part IV is a 2000 American superhero comedy film released by Troma Entertainment, directed by Lloyd Kaufman...
in 2000.
Roth had a role in Quentin Tarantino's half of Grindhouse
Grindhouse
A grindhouse is an American term for a theater that mainly shows exploitation films. It is named after the defunct burlesque theaters located on 42nd Street in New York City, where 'bump n' grind' dancing and striptease were featured.- History :...
, Death Proof
Death Proof
Death Proof is a 2007 American action thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film centers on a psychopathic stunt man who stalks young women before murdering them in staged car accidents using his "death-proof" stunt car...
, in a scene with Jordan Ladd. Tarantino was so impressed by Roth's brief role as Justin in Cabin Fever, he asked Roth to audition for the film. Roth left his preproduction on Hostel Part II in Prague to fly to Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
for one week to film the scene at the Texas Chili Parlor. Roth said working as an actor for Tarantino was like taking a masterclass in directing, and said the only directors he would ever act for were people who had won the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
. Roth also made appearances in several projects that David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
directed for Davidlynch.com.
Roth was profiled on the G4
G4 (TV channel)
G4, also known as G4 TV, is an American cable- and satellite-television channel originally geared primarily toward young adult viewers, originally based on the world of video games...
TV show Icons, and was on the cover of Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
magazine's "Hollywood's most profitable stars" issue.
Eli Roth brought a Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford. It is the first film in the Indiana Jones franchise...
shot-for-shot remake by kids to the attention of both Harry Knowles
Harry Knowles
Harry Knowles is known for his website called Ain't It Cool News. Knowles is a member of the Austin Film Critics Association.-Biography:...
and Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
. Roth had a copy in his collection of videos for years before showing it at Harry Knowles' Butt-Numb-A-Thon
Butt-numb-a-thon
Butt-Numb-A-Thon is an annual film marathon held every December since 1999 in Austin, Texas.It is hosted by Harry Knowles of the Ain't it Cool News website in celebration of his birthday. This mini-festival shows 24 hours of vintage films as well as premieres.-Event admission:The marathon is...
film festival in December, 2002. The response was so overwhelming that Roth took the tape to his very first meeting at Dreamworks
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming...
, and gave it to an executive to give to Steven Spielberg. The executive called Roth the next week saying that Spielberg loved it and wanted to contact the filmmakers. Roth had never met the filmmakers, but Google searched every name in the credits until he got a hold of Jayson Lamb, the cinematographer. The three filmmakers, Lamb, Chris Strompolis, and Eric Zala (a former Activision
Activision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
employee), had not spoken to each other in years when Roth contacted them out of the blue, saying that Spielberg wanted to write them a letter. This reunited the friends, who began touring the world doing charity screenings with the film. Roth felt that the film was so powerful he had to do whatever he could to make sure fans around the world saw it. Roth introduced the film at its premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre
Grauman's Chinese Theatre
Grauman's Chinese Theatre is a movie theater at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. It is on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame.The Chinese Theatre was commissioned following the success of the nearby Grauman's Egyptian Theatre which opened in 1922...
in May 2008, five and a half years after he first got the tape to Knowles and Spielberg.
Roth co-starred with Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
in Quentin Tarantino's World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
epic Inglourious Basterds, playing Donny Donowitz, a.k.a. "The Bear Jew." He also guest directed the Nazi propaganda
Nazi propaganda
Propaganda, the coordinated attempt to influence public opinion through the use of media, was skillfully used by the NSDAP in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany...
film-within-the-film, Nation's Pride.
Roth wrote, directed and acted in a P.S.A. for P.E.T.A. about the link between violence against animals leading to violence against people. Roth won a Telly Award for his spot (Public Service Category: Bronze.)
Roth, through his company Arcade with Eric Newman and Strike producer Marc Abraham, produced the horror film The Last Exorcism, (originally titled Cotton) which was directed by Daniel Stamm. It was completed in December 2009 and in February 2010 retitled The Last Exorcism. The Last Exorcism, which cost $1.5 million to produce, opened to over $20 million dollars in the U.S., and earned the #1 opening spots in Canada and the U.K. The film was completely paid for by selling off a few foreign territories and in profits before shooting began. It earned over $40 million dollars at the U.S. box office, totaling $70 million worldwide. Roth also had a cameo as a contest emcee in Alexandre Aja
Alexandre Aja
Alexandre Aja is a French film director who rose to international stardom for his 2003 horror film Haute Tension .-Personal life:...
's Piranha 3-D
Piranha 3-D
Piranha 3D is a 2010 3D horror film, and the second remake of the 1978 film of the same name. It is directed by Alexandre Aja and sports an ensemble cast featuring Steven R...
.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Credited as | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director Film director A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:... |
Producer Film producer A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The... |
Writer Screenwriter Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:... |
Actor Actor An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity... |
Role | Notes | ||
| 2002 | Cabin Fever | Justin aka Grim | |||||
| 2004 | Tales from the Crapper Tales from the Crapper Tales from the Crapper is a 2004 straight-to-video anthology film that was a spoof of the Tales from the Crypt comics. The film was released by Troma Entertainment.-Plot:... |
Gay Party-goer | |||||
| 2005 | 2001 Maniacs 2001 Maniacs 2001 Maniacs is a 2005 American comedy horror film directed by Tim Sullivan, starring Robert Englund, Jay Gillespie, Dylan Edrington, and Matthew Carey. It is a remake of the 1964 film Two Thousand Maniacs! written and directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis. The film is distributed by Lions Gate... |
Justin | |||||
| Hostel | American Stoner | Cameo Cameo appearance A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television... |
|||||
| 2007 | Hostel: Part II | Head on stick | |||||
| Death Proof Death Proof Death Proof is a 2007 American action thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film centers on a psychopathic stunt man who stalks young women before murdering them in staged car accidents using his "death-proof" stunt car... |
Dov | ||||||
| Thanksgiving | Tucker/Trailer Announcer | ||||||
| 2009 | Don't Look Up Don't Look Up Don't Look Up is a 1996 Japanese horror film directed by Hideo Nakata.-Plot:Don't Look Up is about a film director and his crew who slowly go insane when the film set is haunted by the ghost of an actress who died while filming a TV show in the 1960s.On the set of a dark war time drama at an old... |
Béla Olt | |||||
| Inglourious Basterds | Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz | ||||||
| Nation's Pride | N/A | Film within a film | |||||
| 2010 | The Last Exorcism The Last Exorcism The Last Exorcism is a 2010 American found footage horror film directed and edited by Daniel Stamm. It stars Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, and Louis Herthum.... |
N/A | |||||
| Piranha 3D | Wet T-shirt contest MC | Cameo Cameo appearance A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television... |
|||||
| 2011 | Endangered Species | ||||||
| Clown | N/A | ||||||
| 2012 | The Man with the Iron Fists | ||||||
Collaborations
Eli Roth has cast certain actors in more than one of his films.| Cabin Fever | Hostel | Hostel: Part II | Thanksgiving | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Derek Richardson | ||||
| Jay Hernandez Jay Hernandez Javier Manuel "Jay" Hernandez, Jr. is an American actor.-Early life and career:Hernandez was born in Montebello, California, the son of Isis , a secretary and accountant, and Javier Hernandez, Sr., a mechanic. He has a younger sister, Amelia, and two older brothers, Michael and Gabriel. Hernandez... |
||||
| Rick Hoffman Rick Hoffman Rick Hoffman is an American actor and is best known for his roles as Patrick Van Dorn in Jake in Progress and more recently as Louis Litt in USA Network's legal drama Suits.-Early life:... |
||||
| Jana Kaderabkova | ||||
| Jordan Ladd Jordan Ladd Jordan Elizabeth Ladd is an American actress. She began taking small film roles before landing her first high-profile role in Never Been Kissed . Since then, Ladd has portrayed supporting as well as lead roles in films, including Cabin Fever , Club Dread , and Death Proof... |
||||
| Barbara Nedeljáková Barbara Nedeljáková Barbara Nedeljáková is a Slovak actress, best known for her role as Natalya in the 2005 horror film Hostel.-Filmography:-External links:*Barbara Nedeljakova's Official website... |
||||
| Eli Roth |
1 Normal cameo
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
.
2 Flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
cameo.
3 Possible upcoming role.