Paper Machete

You can file this under strictly rumour for the time being, however, there have been some exciting 'leaks' regarding the cast for Robert Rodriguez’s Machete. For those of you playing at home, Machete is the latest project from Movie Mazzupial’s favouritist director in all the land and is an expansion of a faux trailer Rodriguez created to play at the start of Grindhouse. Like the spoof trailer, the feature film adaptation will pay homage to exploitation films of the 60s and 70s, probably in a similar fashion to the awesome Black Dynamite reviewed below. Rodriguez originally came up with the idea whilst filming Desperado and wanting to create a Mexican Jean-Claude Van Damme. It has taken until now to get the idea off the ground and into production, with there being no shortage of hype surrounding the project. The latest and most reliable tid-bit comes from a Bloody-Disgusting.com contributor who revealed the four main cast members as being *drum roll please*:
Danny Trejo

Okay, so I started with the biggest unsurprise ever as its common knowledge (to all with a cranium) that Trejo is taking up the title roll of Machete. A Rodriguez regular, the character and film were created around Trejo and his signature, erm, charm.
Michelle Rodriguez

Robert’s twin sister Michelle is said to be playing the character of Luz. I should point out here the above is a lie and despite the last name, the action-babe is in no way related to Mr Rodriguez . . .that we know of.
Jonah Hill Everyone’s favourite Seth Rogen doppelganger is tipped for the role of Julio.
Robert De Niro

To conclude the cast gossip with a bang, the legend De Niro will star as Senator McLaughlin in the film which, in my humble opinion, is quite unlike anything he has done before. Ballsy.

So, if the above cast info turns out to be true – what an amazing ensemble! All very different actors with very different backgrounds, this should make for an exciting collaboration. Speaking of collaborations, Rodriguez will be co-directing the picture with Ethan Maniquis who has worked with Rod-man as editor on a bunch of his past films (Planet Terror, Sin City and the upcoming Shorts). Machete has a release date for sometime in 2010 but for those wanting a taste of what to expect I suggest you watch the spoof trailer (below) where it all began.