After everyone furrows their brows and ponders Darren Aronofsky’s forthcoming ballet world thriller “Black Swan” (ok, we can’t wait to furrow our brows either), the Venice International Film Festival will unspool Robert Rodriguez’s slice-and-dice grindhouse flick “Machete” in a special out-of-competition midnight screening.
With Quentin Tarantino heading up the jury this year, maybe it’s not a total surprise to find “Machete” slotted into the mix at Venice, but its still fascinating for the fest to giving screentime to a completely unapologetic genre flick. Frankly, it’s kind of awesome. Film festivals can be a total brain drain with one ponderous film after another, so it’s great to have something like this to mix things up. Geez, maybe we shoulda saved our pennies and gone to Venice this year instead of Cannes. Their lineup is exceedingly more interesting than the generally dry offerings this year on the Croisette. Anyhow, “Machete” isn’t the only genre flick headed to Venice as Andrew Lau’s “Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zen” (also playing at TIFF) has also been confirmed.
Boasting a star-studded cast the includes Danny Trejo, Jessica Alba, Robert De Niro, Michelle Rodriguez, Lindsay Lohan, Cheech Marin, Steven Seagal, Don Johnson, Rose McGowan, Jeff Fahey and Daryl Sabara expect a lot these names to be booking flights and hotels in Venice (ok, maybe not Lohan).
“Machete” opens on September 3rd.
