Unless you happen to be from Chile, you might not have ever heard of director Nicolas Lopez. But chances are you soon will. After creating the top grossing Chilean films in both 2010 and 2011 with Que Pena Tu Vida and Que Pena Tu Boda, the director is next moving on to helm Aftershock, the newest film from Eli Roth.
This one is a disaster movie that Roth and Lopez wrote together, and that Roth will be starring in. Apparently the idea for the film came to Lopez after his country was hit with a pretty bad earthquake back in 2010, but it’s got some of Roth’s horror sensibility in there as well. The story is largely about dangerous patients that escape an insane asylum after the quake. If horror fans have any sort of issue with getting some Lopez mixed in with their Roth, then maybe this awesome quote from the director will assuage your fears: “I was a fan of Cabin Fever and Hostel, and I love that we’re mixing our sensibility. People will be shocked when they see this movie. It’s nothing that you could expect. I want this to be my Robocop.” Anybody who doesn’t think their career is complete until they’ve made their Robocop is okay with me.
Roth thinks he’s pretty okay too. When talking about his collaborator he said, “He has the incredible combination of commercial sensibility with an artistic eye, and what he has done here in Chile with their film industry is revolutionary,” then added, “This collaboration marks the beginning of what we call Chilewood, making genre films for the global market using all the resources Chile has to offer.”
And it sounds like their plan to turn Chile into a hotbed of genre filmmaking is already off to a good start, because even at only four weeks into its production, Aftershock is already being sought out by several Hollywood studios. Reports say that names like The Weinstein Company and Relativity Media are currently involved in a bidding war to get the rights to this one, with the final deal likely to get made in Berlin.
Oh yeah, one more thing Disney fans…this movie also has a Selena Gomez cameo! Squee! [Deadline Putre]