Last January, writer / director Eli Roth terrified moviegoers with the blood-drenched Hostel, which catapulted to the top of the box office charts and became the first Number One film of 2006. One year later, Roth takes us back to where it all began, and deeper into the darkest recesses of the human mind.
In Hostel Part II, three young Americans travelling in Rome set off for a weekend getaway led by a gorgeous, sophisticated European acquaintance who invites the trio to join her at an exotic natural spa, assuring them they will be able to relax, rejuvenate and bond.
Will the girls find the oasis they are looking for? Or are they poised to become victims for auction, pawns in the fantasies of the sick and privileged from around the world who secretly travel there to savour more grisly pursuits?
With Hostel, Eli Roth cemented the cutting-edge credentials he earned with his debut feature Cabin Fever (2002). In Hostel Part II, Roth invites fans to take another frightening trip where suppressed urges – once unleashed – have chilling consequences.
About the Production
With the release of Hostel: Part II in 2006, writer/director Eli Roth alternately thrilled and chilled audiences worldwide with the horrific and suspenseful tale of a Slovakian youth hostel that doubles as a sadistic playground to well-heeled clientele from around the world. A squirm-inducing, gritty account of American backpackers unwittingly sold to blood-thirsty patrons who torture and kill simply for the twisted pleasure of doing so, the film became an international hit, claiming the top spot at the US. box office in its $20 million opening weekend. Now Roth returns to the scene with Hostel: Part II, unveiling the next chapter in the terrifying odyssey.
Unlike most sequels, Hostel: Part II is distinguished by the return of the first instalment’s entire team of filmmakers, which includes Roth, producers Mike Fleiss and Chris Briggs, and executive producers Boaz Yakin, Scott Spiegel, and Quentin Tarantino.
While the unexpected success of Hostel all but guaranteed Roth an opportunity to helm a sequel, it also placed tremendous pressure on the director to deliver a follow-up that would match – or even surpass – the original’s galvanizing intensity. “I knew I had to up the ante the second time around,” says Roth. “One of the ways I did that was by making the three protagonists young women.”
Hostel: Part II follows the fateful journey of Beth, Whitney and Lorna, three relatively inexperienced American women travelling abroad in Italy. When they decide to take a weekend trip, they are lured to a remote corner of Slovakia by a beautiful model they meet along the way, only to find their idyllic adventure turn into a fight for their lives.
“Women in jeopardy and women in horror are kind of a staple of the genre,” says the director. “In this particular scenario, the girls travelling in Europe feel more vulnerable than the guys did in the first movie. It raises the stakes for the audience.”
For the role of Beth, a wealthy yet unassuming all-American girl, Roth turned to Lauren German, an actress who impressed him in a small, but emotionally intense, role in the recent re-make of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. “Lauren has a sense of humour, but she can also handle those horrific, intense moments,” explains Roth. “I needed an actress who would be so vulnerable and so likeable, but then really strong when she needs to be. Even though Lauren probably weighs ninety pounds soaking wet and looks like a princess, you feel like she’s kicking ass.”
As Beth’s animated friend, Whitney, a whip-smart girl who seems more interested in meeting guys than seeing Europe, Bijou Phillips commands the screen. “Bijou walked in to audition and she owned the room,” remembers Roth. “She was so funny and so sharp and ballsy and tough, I thought, `This is exactly what I’m looking for.’ She’s one of the smartest girls I’ve ever met, and it’s been fun as hell working with her.”
When considering the role of Lorna, the awkward girl-next-door who longs for romance and excitement in her life, Roth knew very early on that he wanted Heather Matarazzo, who starred years ago as the hapless pre-teen Dawn Wiener in Todd Solondz’s cult hit, Welcome to the Dollhouse. Excited by Roth’s script, Matarazzo flew to Los Angeles to read for the role – little did she know the part was already hers.
Like its predecessor, Hostel: Part II begins as a disarming vision of a young person’s dream vacation – one that seems far removed from the nightmare that eventually takes over. “The beginning feels like this fun comedy about young girls having a great time. We’re all together and enjoying ourselves,” Phillips explains.
The atmosphere changes subtly when the girls visit a medieval fair in the picturesque town of Cesky Krumlov, near Prague. “The town of Cesky Krumlov is so beautiful that when you’re walking in it, you can’t believe it’s real,” says Roth. “That location really helped contribute to the fairy tale quality of the movie. If Beth is our Snow White, then this town of Cesky Krumlov is her fantasyland. It seems almost fated that something is going to shatter this idyllic place. It’s too perfect.”
The inevitable torture scenes, which were shot one after another, were gruelling and disturbing work for the three actresses. Phillips’ was the last torture episode shot among the three. One scene in that sequence, by her estimation, required about forty-five set-ups. The emotional intensity of the experience left an indelible impression. “I don’t think I could do something like this again,” Phillips confesses. “I’m glad that I had the experience, and I love my job, but we went into places that I didn’t know existed, and I don’t need to do that again.”
Despite Phillips’ difficulties, the experience in no way compares to the discomfort braved by Matarazzo. As Lorna, Matarazzo had to work entirely in the nude for a sequence that consumed two nights of shooting. She spent every moment in the scene hanging upside down, with her hands shackled behind her back for up to five minutes at a time. Her endurance was phenomenal, but it was her performance that dazzled the crew. “Heather Matarazzo was so great in that role, she had us all freaked out,” recalls effects supervisor Mike McCarty.
No horror film worth its salt can function without at least a good villain or two – or in the case of Hostel: Part II, four potential villains: the curvaceous and stunningly beautiful Axelle, the cold, calculating Sasha, and the American buddies Todd and Stuart.
Vera Jordanova, a model born in Bulgaria and reared in Finland, plays Axelle, the temptress who lures the girls away from their intended destination of Prague and shepherds them toward certain slaughter in Slovakia. With her stunning looks and multi-national background, Jordanova lends an exotic, culturally indeterminate air to Axelle, which makes her true character all the more elusive. “Axelle seems very innocent, but there is a mysterious side of her where you can’t really tell where she is from or what she has been through,” says Jordanova.
Axelle’s mentor, Sasha, is the head figure in the nefarious organization called Elite Hunting. As played by Slovakian stage and screen actor Milan Knazko, Sasha has the icy demeanour of a heartless killer and the ruthless cunning of a Wall Street deal broker. A former Minister of Culture in Slovakia, Knazko jumped at the opportunity to play a ruthless Russian – it offered him an amusing bit of revenge for the Soviet invasion during Prague Spring of 1968. “The fact that Sasha was Russian was one of the reasons I accepted this role,” says Knazko with a smile. “We Slovaks are still a little bit angry over the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet army.”
Unlike the original film, which hews closely to the victims, Hostel: Part II offers more information about the torturers themselves, in this case Stuart and Todd, two upwardly-mobile American suburbanites who have travelled thousands of miles for the opportunity to maim and kill with impunity. As played by Roger Bart and Richard Burgi, Stuart and Todd are emblematic of the more extreme sides of human nature… and the dark shadow of First World materialism.
Explains Roth, “Todd and Stuart only care about reaching the next level. Like a lot of people, neither of them is happy with what they have. Stuart’s miserable in his life. Todd buys things. He has all the money he needs, but he’s not happy. Everyone’s looking for that next level of excitement.”
Bart felt it was important to portray Stuart as authentically as possible. “There’s a tremendous amount of rage inside of Stuart, but I thought he should appear pretty normal,” says the actor. “One of the points I think Eli’s trying to make is that evil can be inhabited by those who are at the stool next to you at TGIFriday’s or who sit two cubicles down. You would never know.”
Torture Scenes
Burgi views the film as a cautionary tale. He says, “I’d like audiences to walk away with a sense of introspection about their own dark, repressed side – and, hopefully, look to themselves for some sort of change.”
For the remaining supporting roles, Roth went out of his way to assemble a truly international cast. Young actor Stanislav Ianevski (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) plays another unfortunate victim of Elite Hunting, while cult Italian director Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust) plays his torturer in a role specifically tailored for him by Roth. Fans of 1970s cinema may recognize actress Edwige Fenech in a cameo as the three girls’ art professor in Rome as well as Italian star Luc Merenda, who came out of fifteen-year retirement to play the Italian Detective in the hospital. Zuzana Geislerova, a Czech stage actress, rounds out the cast as Inya, a fashionable, fastidious manager at the Elite Hunting factory.
Principal photography for Hostel: Part II began in Prague on 11 September 2006 at the state-of-the-art film facilities at Barrandov Studios, where key sets for the film’s underground dungeon were constructed. As with the original movie, many scenes were shot in locations in and around Prague. One rather notorious real-life establishment – known as Big Sister – was used for several scenes involving Todd and Stuart and helped established the seedy underworld of the story. Both a “voyeuristic pay site” and a brothel, Big Sister offers a wide variety of “services” to customers at no charge – as long as they agree to live Internet streaming of their activities, which are viewed by paying subscribers.
By all counts, Hostel: Part II is a substantially bigger production than its predecessor. Filming took place in vastly different locations – including the South of France and the North Atlantic island nation of Iceland – and Roth was given the freedom to create the bricks-and-mortar factory in which the story plays out. He explains, “When people go see Hostel: Part II, they’re going to want to go back to the same hostel and also see the same factory. But I didn’t want to go back to the same rooms in the factory. So we constructed a whole new underground level.”
In order to build the most authentic sets, Roth and production designer Robert Wilson King toured many factories and underground sites and replicated their favourite locations, adding their own flourishes to each one. King’s design work included a variety of settings: the interiors of the train carrying the girls toward unforeseen perils; the medieval fair; and, finally, the factory – the dark endpoint where the Elite Hunting organization conducts its grisly business. Roth describes King’s factory set as something of a character in and of itself – one that reminds moviegoers of where they’ve been, but simultaneously points them in a new direction.
Throughout his work on Hostel: Part II, King focused on conjuring emotionally loaded images, such as the creepy medieval festival or the heavy steel gates of the factory, which look like a teeth-baring monster. “I’m a method production designer,” he explains. “It’s beyond pretty pictures or just servicing the script. It’s getting inside it and figuring out the elements that really stir you, that can command some emotional response.”
Last but not least, Roth and his team had to make sure they delivered plenty of what fans have to come to expect from the Hostel franchise: blood and gore. The Oscar-winning make-up effects team of Gregory Nicotero and Howard Berger (Chronicles of Narnia) worked for four weeks before the start of production, fine-tuning the prosthetic body parts and cinematic illusions, each designed to make even the most diehard horror fans wince.
In almost every case, the results that appear on screen are the result of painstaking trial and error. In situations where the prosthetics required computerized assistance in creating a seamless effect, Nicotero and Berger turned to the CGI talents of visual effects supervisor Gary Beach. The result is a gritty, frighteningly realistic picture of human brutality that underscores the dark psychological heart of the film.
“There’s just some deep part of human nature that we all have, which is a need to control or hurt another person,” says Roth. “And most people have that need under control, but other people don’t, and they need to get it out somehow. And that’s terrifying – to think that everybody has that in them. Everybody has some side of them that wants to control or abuse another person.”
About the Cast
Lauren German (Beth)
Lauren German co-starred in the remake of the film Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Additional film credits include A Walk to Remember, starring Mandy Moore, Down to You, Standing Still, as well as the independent films RX, Piggy Banks, A Midsummer Night’s Rave, Everything Is Fine, Director’s Cut and Larceny.
Television audiences remember German as Rose Miller, the celebrity journalist girlfriend of Hank, who found herself in turmoil over her ex-boyfriend haunting her from the past, in Paramount Network Television’s UPN drama, “Sex, Love & Secrets.” Additional television credits include the CBS movie-of-the-week, “Surrender Dorothy,” the MTV original film “Shotgun Love Dolls,” as well as guest starring roles on Showtime’s “California” and the WB series “Seventh Heaven” and “The Lone Ranger.”
On stage, German has starred in the Glact productions “Peter Pan” and “Oliver.” She trained at the Theater School of Cinema at the Southern California, as well as The Actor’s Studio and the place Orange County High School of the Arts.
German will next be seen in You Are Here and What We Do Is Secret. She grew up in Orange County, Calif. and resides in Los Angeles.
Roger Bart (Stuart)
Television audiences have become quite familiar with Roger Bart’s breakout role as George Williams, the menacing pharmacist trying to seduce Bree Van De Kamp, on ABC’s hit drama “Desperate Housewives.”
Bart recently appeared in the film adaptation of Mel Brooks’ hit musical comedy The Producers in which he reprised his stage portrayal of “Carmen Ghia,” alongside Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane. Bart received both Tony and Drama Desk nominations for his original performance in the role.
Bart recently wrapped production on Jeff Garlin’s independent comedy I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With and was most recently seen in a critically-acclaimed performance as a gay spouse in Paramount Pictures’ The Stepford Viwes. Additional film work includes The Insider, starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe, Disney’s Hercules (singing voice of Young Hercules), and The Lady and the Tramp II (singing voice of Scamp).
On Broadway, Bart received the 1999 Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Featured Actor in a Musical as “Snoopy” in the revival of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” directed by Michael Mayer. Other Broadway and first national touring credits include “The Frogs,” starring Nathan Lane; “Triumph of Love,” “King David,” “How to Succeed in Business,” “The Secret Garden,” “Big River” and “The Who’s Tommy.”
His television credits include “Bram and Alice,” “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” and “The George Carlin Show.”
A native of New Jersey, Bart divides his time between New York and Los Angeles.
Heather Matarazzo (Lorna)
Heather Matarazzo, a successful actress since her feature film debut in Welcome to the Dollhouse, which also earned her an Independent Spirit Award at the age of 12, has been captivating movie-going audiences for the past ten years. Most recently, she appeared on Showtime’s critically acclaimed “The L Word.”
Heather quickly followed up Dollhouse with a breakout performance in the Al Pacino thriller The Devil’s Advocate. In the following years, Heather worked on such films as 54, Getting to Know You, Scream 3, Sorority Boys, and Freshman Orientation as well as the critically acclaimed television movie, “Our Guys: Outrage at Glen Ridge,” in which Heather plays a mentally challenged teen who is gang raped by a group of high school students.
In 1997, Heather joined the cast of “Roseanne” for the final season of the smash hit show and in 1999 she began production on “Now and Again,” the largely successful Sci-Fi television show.
In 2001, Heather starred in Disney’s box office hit, The Princess Diaries, directed by Garry Marshall. In 2004, Heather reprised her role of Lilly in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. 2004 also brought the sleeper hit, Saved! where Heather joined co-stars Jena Malone, Mandy Moore and Macaulay Culkin in this comedic look at Christian subculture. Heather currently resides in New York City.
Bijou Phillips (Whitney)
The multi-talented Bijou Phillips has led an unusual life. She spent her childhood in New York, California and South Africa. She excelled in Equestrienne sport. When she was 13, she became a model to escape boarding school and became one of the youngest people to grace the cover of Interview Magazine and Italian Vogue. Bijou also appeared in several ads for Calvin Klein. At 17, she acquired a record deal and began work on her album I’d Rather Eat Glass produced by Talking Heads’ Jerry Harrison.
She was later cast in Black and White by director James Toback and garnered nothing but glowing praise from critics for her performance. Larry Clark cast her in Bully which led The Hollywood Reporter to name her one of 2002’s “Shooting Stars” of tomorrow. Bijou continues to make great films with her role opposite Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger in The Door in the Floor, a film adaptation of John Irving’s novel A Widow For One Year.
She most recently completed a leading role opposite Anne Hathaway in Oscar-winning writer Stephan Gaghan’s Havoc, directed by Oscar-winning documentarian, Barbara Kopple. Venom, produced by Scream’s Kevin Williamson, and the David Fincher film Zodiac with Robert Downey Jr., Jake Gyllenhaal and Gary Oldman. This is only the beginning for her, with several projects on the horizon, including her portrayal of `Lorna Doom’ opposite Shane West in a feature film about late 70’s seminal-punk band The Germs.
She just wrapped three other movies including Wizard of Gore, directed by Jeremy Kasten and starring Kip Pardue and Crispin Glover; Dark Streets and You Are Here, directed by Henry Pincus. Recently, she performed as Yitzak in a revival of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” at the Roxy Theater in Hollywood.
Richard Burgi (Todd)
Born and raised in Montclair, New Jersey, Richard Burgi is a talented and compelling actor with an extensive and varied filmography in both television and film.
Richard has been working steadily in television and film since the latter half of the 1980’s, when he landed his first full-time role on NBC’s “Another World”, playing Chad Rollo. Since then he has appeared on countless television shows including “Desperate Housewives,” “24,” “Point Pleasant,” “CSI,” “The District,” “Judging Amy,” “The Sentinel,” “Just Shoot Me” and “Seinfeld.”
His multiple film roles include Curtis Hanson’s In Her Shoesopposite Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette, Fun With Dick and Jane opposite Jim Carrey, Cellular opposite Kim Basinger, and Shanghai Red opposite Vivian Wu.
Vera Jordanova (Axelle)
Vera Jordanova was born in Helsinki, Finland to Bulgarian musicians. She traveled throughout Scandinavia with them during their tours and spent her childhood in Bulgaria attending elementary school and living with her grandmother.
Due to the political situation in Bulgaria, Jordanova’s parents decided to relocate the family to Finland when Jordanova was 14. Shortly thereafter she was discovered by the premiere Finnish modeling agency and began to appear in national campaigns, and on magazine covers. From there, Vera went on to shoot a campaign for cosmetic giant Clarins, with renowned photographer Gilles Bensimon.
For several years Vera pursued an international modeling career and lived in various locales such as France, South Africa and Spain and placecountry-regionSouth Africa. While living in Barcelona, Jordanova attended a contemporary art school, where she discovered her love for abstract painting, installations and most of all – photography.
Jordanova now resides in Los Angeles where she pursues dual careers in acting and photography while continuing to work as a successful model with Elite Modeling Agency.
Hostel: Part II marks Jordanova’s first major film role and she can soon be seen as well in acclaimed director Frank Borin’s video for the band Rocco De Luca and the Burden, whose current album appears on Keifer Sutherland’s Ironworks Music label.
Stanislav Ianevski (Miroslav)
Stanislav Ianevski is 19 and has just finished his AA levels. Stan now lives in his native country Bulgaria. In the past he has lived in Israel and Holland, where he appeared in numerous school productions.
Hostel: Part II marks his second professional role. His first role was as the Champion Quidditch player Viktor Krum in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, directed by Mike Newell.
About the Filmmakers
Eli Roth (Director / Writer / Producer)
Eli Roth burst onto the film scene at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival, with his debut film CABIN FEVER which he produced, directed, and co-wrote. Produced independently on a low budget, CABIN FEVER was the highest selling film at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival, after a frenzied bidding war between seven studios. The film went on to be Lionsgate’s highest grossing film (no pun intended) of 2003, opening on 2,100 screens, and has to date grossed over $100 million dollars worldwide in theatrical, home video, and DVD sales.
Roth’s second film Hostel, which he wrote, produced, and directed, (Executive Produced and Presented by Quentin Tarantino) was a massive hit worldwide, opening #1 both at the box office and on DVD. Produced independently for a nominal budget of $4 million dollars, Hostel has to date earned $150 million dollars in theatrical and DVD revenue.
Both of Roth’s films garnered overwhelming critical acclaim around the globe, with glowing review from The New York Times, Le Monde, Rolling Stone, Empire Magazine, Film Comment, Entertainment Weekly, and Premiere Magazine. Roth has been profiled and interviewed in such publications as GQ, Elle, The New York Times, Esquire, New York Magazine, I-D, Stuff, and Maxim. He has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including MTV’s “Total Request Live,” “The Jimmy Kimmel Show,” “Best Week Ever,” “The Treatment” with Elvis Mitchell, and “The Howard Stern Show.” His name has become so synonymous with horror that in 2006 he had twice been an answer in the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle. Roth is widely credited for bringing back the current wave of R-rated horror films that revived the box office, and his films have redefined the movie studios perception of low budget horror films.
Most recently Roth appeared as an actor in the Quentin Tarantino film Death Proof and wrote and directed “Thanksgiving,” a faux trailer that will play in Grindhouse between two feature films. Future projects include an adaptation of Stephen King’s bestseller Cell for The Weinstein Company.
Mike Fleiss (Producer)
Mike Fleiss and his company, Next Entertainment, have managed to do what virtually no other independent production unit has accomplished — success on the big and small screens.
In addition to Hostel: Part II, Fleiss and Next are currently producing the prequel to the 2003 horror hit Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and Cell for The Weinstein Company.
On the small screen, Fleiss is currently filming the 12th season of his immensely successful ABC series “The Bachelor,” as well as a new series for ABC.
Christopher Briggs (Producer)
Chris Briggs is a writer/producer who most recently served as a producer on Hostel.
Scott Spiegel (Executive Producer)
Scott Spiegel co-wrote the cult classic Evil Dead 2 with Sam Raimi. He also co-wrote the Clint Eastwood actioner The Rookie. Scott partnered with Boaz Yakin and Eli Roth to form the horror company Raw Nerve. He has also appeared in all three Spiderman movies.
Quentin Tarantino (Executive Producer)
Quentin Tarantino (Writer / Director / Producer / Director of Photography): With his vibrant imagination and his trademark dedication to richly detailed storytelling, Quentin Tarantino has established himself as one of the most unique, visionary filmmakers of his generation. Tarantino continues to infuse his distinct, innovative films with appreciative nods to classic moviemaking styles, genres and motifs.
Tarantino recently guided audiences on a whirlwind tour of the globe in Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2, in which Uma Thurman, as “the bride,” enacted a “roaring rampage of revenge” on her former lover and boss. Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 also star David Carradine as the doomed title character, and Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Vivica A. Fox and Michael Madsen as his equally moribund team of assassins.
Following the worldwide success of Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2, Tarantino seized an opportunity to collaborate with longtime friend and colleague Robert Rodriguez as a special guest director on the thriller place Sin City. Based on three of co-director Frank Miller’s graphic novels, Sin City was released by Miramax in April, 2005.The ensemble cast includes Jessica Alba, Powers Boothe, Rosario Dawson, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Clarke Duncan, Michael Madsen, Brittany Murphy, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis and Elijah Wood.
Tarantino then turned his attention to the small screen, directing the season five finale of “CSI.” In the episode, entitled “Grave Danger,” Tarantino took the show’s fans on a chilling, claustrophobic journey six feet underground into a torturous coffin that contained CSI team member Nick Stokes (George Eads). The episode garnered Tarantino an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. Tarantino made his television directorial debut in 1995 with an episode of the long-running drama “ER” entitled “Motherhood.”
Tarantino wrote and directed Jackie Brown, a comic crime caper loosely based on Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch, starring Pam Grier, Robert Forster, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert De Niro, Bridget Fonda and Michael Keaton. Jackie Brown was released in 1997. Grier garnered both Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations for her performance in the title role. Forster was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. placeCityJackson won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1998 for his performance as Ordell Robbie.
Tarantino co-wrote, directed and starred in Pulp Fiction, which won the Palme D’Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, numerous critics awards, and a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay. (He made a return visit to Cannes in 2004 to take on the prestigious role of jury president.) Pulp Fiction was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, and Tarantino received an Academy Award for Best Screenplay. The time-bending, crime fiction collage stars John Travolta, Bruce Willis, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Eric Stoltz, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Maria de Medeiros, Amanda Plummer and Christopher Walken.
He made a bold debut with Reservoir Dogs, a cops and robbers tale that Tarantino wrote, directed and produced on a shoe-string budget. The film boasts an impressive cast that includes Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen. Following the success of Reservoir Dogs, the screenplays that Tarantino wrote during his tenure as a video store clerk became hot properties: Tony Scott directed Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette in True Romance and Robert Rodriguez directed George Clooney and Salma Hayek in From Dusk Till Dawn. Tarantino joined Allison Anders, Robert Rodriguez and Alexandre Rockwell by directing, writing and executive producing a segment of the omnibus feature Four Rooms. Four Rooms was released by Miramax in December, 1995. Tarantino’s diverse work as a producer exemplifies both his dedication to first-time filmmakers and his enthusiastic support for his experienced peers and colleagues.
Tarantino served as an executive producer on Eli Roth’s Hostel, a chilling horror film about vacationers who fall victim to a service that allows its patrons to live out sadistic fantasies of murder. Tarantino is also an executive producer on John Madden’s thriller Killshot, starring Mickey Rourke and Diane Lane. Killshot will be released by The Weinstein Company in 2006.
Daniel Frisch (Co-Producer)
Dan Frisch is a Los Angeles and Prague based Producer who formed International Production Company (IPC) in 2003 to produce films, television, music videos and commercials worldwide. Once again Frisch and IPC teamed up with Raw Nerve, Next Entertainment, and Quentin Tarantino to Produce Eli Roth’s Hostelm: Part II. Frisch and IPC are currently in pre production on The Rainbow Tribe, a hi-jinx, family comedy and are set to begin Solomon Kane, a grandiose, period adventure. Other projects involving Frisch and IPC are the motion pictures The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Running Scared, Pink Panther, as well as numerous award winning commercials, music videos and television.
Philip Waley (Co-Producer)
Philip Waley is a Prague- and London-based producer. He has been involved in film and television as well as producing hundreds of commercials and music videos all over the world. Among the recent feature films he has worked on are Hostel, The Pink Panther, The League of Extraordinary Gentleman and Running Scared. In the television field he produced, Waley producer the award-winning “Joan of Arc” for the Hallmark Channel, as well as “The Genius of Mozart” for BBC Television.
Philip is one of the Co-Founder’s of International Production Company (IPC) formed in 2003 to produce films, television, music videos and commercials worldwide. He is currently in post production on Psych 9, a psychological thriller and in pre-production on Solomon Kane, a feature film based on Robert E. Howard’s popular adventure hero, due to lens in the Czech Republic in July. Philip and IPC are also producing The Rainbow Tribe, a children’s adventure film to be shot in the US this summer.
Production notes provided by Lionsgate Films.
Hostel: Part II
Starring: Jay Hernandez, Lauren German, Heather Matarazzo, Bijou Phillips, Vera Jordanova, Roger Bart, Richard Burgi, Monica Malacova
Directed by: Eli Roth
Screenplay by: Eli Roth
Release Date: June 8th, 2007
MPAA Rating: R for sadistic scenes of torture and bloody violence, terror, nudity, sexual content, language, drug content.
Studio: Lionsgate Films
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $17,609,452 (49.4%)
Foreign: $18,010,069 (50.6%)
Total: $35,619,521 (Worldwide)