'Machete's' Danny Trejo will kill again
Fans of Danny Trejo get their full dose of the Latino baddie in this weekend's "Machete." We'll have more later in the week from the character actor, who has had smaller parts in dozens of movies but is finally getting his close-up, playing a part he and Robert Rodriguez describe as the "first Latino superhero."
In the meantime,one interesting tidbit to emerge from our conversation with Trejo: The actor will reunite with "Machete" costar Michelle Rodriguez in a new indie called "Skinny Dip."
The movie is a revenge picture involving a young woman who kills a policeman, and Trejo is keeping it in the family: His son Gilbert will produce and likely co-direct. In case there wasn't enough of the ethnic pride/campiness that Trejo is known for in his work, the other director is a young filmmaker with the perfect name of Frankie Latina.
(No word yet, incidentally, on sequel plans for "Machete," though it's likely Rodriguez, who actually wrote the film back in the early '90s, has some ideas. Certainly, the movie, which got a jolt in development when a fake trailer for it ran in the 2007 movie "Grindhouse," plays on our sequel expectations, with a credit sequence that touts fictitious followups "Machete Kills" and "Machete Kills Again.")
The 22-year-old Gilbert Trejo grew up on movie sets and around movie stars -- Trejo the Elder likes to recall the time his son met Robert De Niro and did a "You talkin' to me" impression (Gilbert was 9). The younger Trejo also occupies one of the low-riders in the climactic scene of "Machete" (firing missiles from a rooftop turret, of course).
Danny Trejo quips that he hopes his son makes it as a filmmaker "so he can give me a job." With the mustachioed one currently booking 10 to 13 gigs per year, we suspect getting a job is no real problem.
-- Steven Zeitchik
http://twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT
Photo: Danny Trejo in "Machete." Credit: 20th Century Fox
hey nepotism is so funny! get your son that job so he can take it away from a more talented film maker who worked his way through school!
Posted by: dennis | 08/29/2010 at 01:28 PM
Dude I remember the first time I ever saw Trejo, in Robert Rodriguez's DESPERADO when I was a youngster at the movies with my Dad. He had all those throwing knives and we thought he was so rad!!! We saw the film two nights in a row and cheered when he started going to town on dudes in the middle of the street.
I'm glad he's getting his close-up with MACHETE, man.. he deserves it.
Posted by: Heisenberg | 08/29/2010 at 07:51 PM
"first Latino superhero"? He's a murdering psychopath.
Racist fueled violence and false flag terrorism. Art really does imitate life.
New Film ‘Machete’ evokes race war
http://www.prisonplanet.com/new-film-%E2%80%98machete%E2%80%99-evokes-race-war.html
Posted by: McWayne | 08/30/2010 at 04:41 AM
McWayne - that's truly ridiculous.
And Rodriguez has been quoted as saying that if "Machete" makes five bucks at the box office, he'll make a sequel. :)
Posted by: Brett | 08/30/2010 at 08:10 AM
Oh, and Dennis? Of the several things wrong with your comment, the most egregious is the assumption that someone who "worked his way through school" must be a "more talented film maker."
Posted by: Brett | 08/30/2010 at 08:12 AM
And what about "EL SANTO"??? I mean, I like Machete and stuff but Rodríguez souldn´t forget the ORIGINAL mexican hero who surely influenced him and many many others...
Posted by: Edwin Roldan | 08/30/2010 at 04:09 PM
If film school grads want jobs, they need to make their own movies to get noticed, just like Robert Rodriguez.
Posted by: MTS | 08/30/2010 at 06:57 PM
McWayne, seriously? Oh, surely the Senator portrayed in the film is a reptilian illuminati like all US politicians. So who you siding with? The Bad guys? Better watch out for Machete then, turncoat.
Posted by: Bubba | 08/31/2010 at 11:04 AM
Does this have anything to do with Carl Hiaasen's SKINNY DIP?
Posted by: Absolutely Vic | 09/02/2010 at 11:47 AM
Good for Danny... I've been waiting for him to stop being the one always being killed.
He's a good guy, a very nice guy and deserves what he is getting now.
Good job Amigo...
Posted by: Phil Osopher | 09/02/2010 at 01:40 PM
"...more talented film maker who worked his way through school."
Sorry Dennis, that's truly ridiculous. Film School means jack. Trejo deserves everything that is coming his way.
It's not a zero-sum game. Go make your own movie like Roberto Rodriguez did.
Posted by: Paul G | 09/02/2010 at 10:33 PM