Sorry I snapped. I’m just a little upset that Boy Meets World season six is out, and I’m stuck at work like a jackass instead of watching it. I’m sure you can sympathize. Also out this week is Das Boot, for those of you who like to watch Nazis on boats. There’s other stuff coming out as well, but if I list it all here, you won’t bother to read on. So take a look below.

Here’s this week’s DVD Rundown!

New Releases

13 Assassins	BloodRayne: The Third Reich	Hobo with a Shotgun	Das Boot

Television

Life According to Jim (S:4)	Boy Meets World (S:6)	The Cape (S:1)	Victorious (S:1 Vol. 1)

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HOBO WITH THE A SHOTGUN will play SXSW on Tuesday, March 15 and Wednesday, March 16.
HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN will be available on VOD, iTunes, XBOX Marketplace, Playstation Network and Amazon.com April 1; in select theaters May 6.

Here, with more info, is a message from Hobo director, Jason Eisener:

For the past two decades, it’s seemed like Hauer fell into obscurity, though his IMDB page lists tons of constant credits we haven’t heard of. He’d pop up on “Alias” or in Batman Begins, but the recent phenomenon of Hobo with a Shotgun seems like his comeback. In a roundtable with the press at Sundance, Hauer explained the plan he’s had for his career all along.

We discovered Rutger Hauer in the late ‘70s

The international release of Soldier of Orange led to Hauer’s Hollywood career. “I had a career in Holland and I had a career in Germany that was sort of short.” Hauer said. “I did five films and a television series in Germany. Then I went to America because I had the Soldier of Orange film that took me over there. That was in the ‘80s, Nighthawks.”

The first version of Blade Runner

We all know the newer director’s cuts, but Hauer remembers the people who stand by the 1982 theatrical version, with voiceover. “Fans were upset about the director’s cut the first time,” he said. “Don’t get precious. You don’t know shit. Remind yourself you never know the whole story. The edits that Ridley released, the way it came out into the press is that people thought there was a conflict. There was not a conflict. Basically they didn’t know how to release the movie at the time and they decided together that it was better to have the cut where Harrison just keeps whining away with ‘I feel so depressed today and I’m a detective and blah blah blah blah blah.’ The first time you see the movie is also when it hits you the hardest so many people are really fond of that version because you’re not clean for the next version or the other one. But they’re all good.”

Lost in the ‘80s

The ‘80s movies were about Rutger Hauer trying to find himself, with some lofty aspirations. “I did my thesis in school about Beckett and got lost,” Hauer said. “Beckett is always saying who the fuck am I, who the fuck am I? I had no clue but even when I got lost I was still there. Then I think for a long time, as an actor I was trying to look for myself in the acting. Let’s see, I started films in ’71 and in the ‘80s, the year that I did Legend of the Holy Drinker, that’s when I came back. Legend of the Holy Drinker is one of my favorite movies because I felt I landed. After all these years, I landed in my talent. I think the core of my talent is that you can see my soul if it’s the right character. You can read my soul as the character and there are not many people who have it. I didn’t earn it. I was born that way so I’m not saying go to that school.”

The Hitcher was the pinnacle of Hauer’s weirdness

The dates are a little iffy. Holy Drinker came out in 1988 but he might have shot it first. Anyway, 1986’s The Hitcher seems to be where Hauer hit his personal stride, and it was his last theatrical hit.

“On the set of The Hitcher, I decided to work in a different way because basically I was fighting everything. I was fighting script and directors and sets and everything. I was like a war zone trying to get to the right performance. You’re not doing this on purpose but it’s so hard on everybody. Then I got tired of it and I thought I’m going to let go I am an actor. It’s working so relax. That’s sort of my attitude. I was watching myself on the set of The Hitcher and then I had this young, excited hot kid, C. Thomas Howell, and he said, ‘I’m an actor. It’s my first serious role. I’m so happy to work with you. Anything, do anything you want.’ He created the basis for the relationship between the two. Had it been any other guy who had any macho feelings, I wouldn’t have been able to do this. You know how actors are, ‘That doesn’t work for me. I wouldn’t let you do that.’ He was my puppy this kid, and that’s the story of the movie. Let me teach this puppy pretty much about fear. Get over it and then we’ll talk.”

Highbrow ideas about Blood of Heroes

The Blood of Heroes is a post-apocalyptic sports movie where Hauer plays an athlete called a jugger, playing a sport with the skull of a dog. “I thought it was Beckett a little bit. There was Beckett in there for me. People didn’t know how to talk to each other. It was all about how do you fuck, how do you eat and how do you drink and when do we fight again? The language was hopeless. The thing about David [Webb Peoples] as a director, David was one of the most sensitive guys. I just didn’t understand how that [violence] would come out of him. Halfway through I said, ‘David, what is all this pride and Olympic game and macho shit?’ He said, ‘I don’t know, what do you think?’ I didn’t know. There are directors who direct but they don’t really know how to tell you. David was like that so I had to read it in a different way but it was a great adventure. And it’s a weird movie. I love the movie. There are some parts of the movie I just eat it up because I think it’s brilliant. And the music is brilliant too.”

No more Action

1989’s Blind Fury was Hauer’s last action hero role until now. “I just had to stop after that because I had a knee problem and I had to stop it. I always work out pretty much unless I’m doing fucking Sundance. I had 10 years when the hormones were all over the place. I don’t know exactly what it was but I was working my ass off. I never eat much and I was gaining wait. I looked like a fat pussy. I say it roughly but I just decided you can only be so old and do action movies and I know America is a little bit more forgiving, but I don’t know. I wanted to try and see if I could move into different characters and it’s not easy but I did it anyway. That’s the really strange part. A lot of things aren’t easy but I did it anyway and I don’t know how I did it. The work seems to come at me all the time.”

Even Rutger Hauer forgets a decade or so.

“So I did all kinds of movies I guess. I’d have to look it up. Let’s say between ’87 and ’97 I did a bunch of crap movies. I would have to Google myself to see what the fuck I did because there’s always one of them is interesting in between. I have no shame. I love it. I think you need to do a lot of bad things in order to get any good at all but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s just me.”

Blade Runner: The Final Cut

Oh yeah, back to Blade Runner. Hauer stuck with it through The Final Cut and continued to join Ridley Scott for Q&As. “The final cut basically says everybody’s a replicant. Then the story’s told through this whole battle is going on through a variety of replicants. That’s just so weird. I think that all three versions play fine because somehow the story keeps coming through. In the replicant version, that everybody’s a replicant, is just another version but I like that cut because it’s warmer and has more compassion, especially with Harrison Ford’s character who’s like a cold fish in the other two. Here you kind of get a feel for him because I know he spends a little more time on him in that whole story. Everybody has a little more time in terms of character. I don’t think it’s longer but it’s just a different cut.”

Hobo with a Shotgun

For all the weird, obscure movies that distracted Rutger Hauer since his glory days, Hobo with a Shotgun was a tough sell. He wasn’t originally into the violence and profanity, but he liked director Jason Eisener. Together they found the right tone.

“You don’t know what he went through to become a hobo but he’s not sane. He’s not quite sane but he has a purity to it and a simplicity as a character where he goes I want to hold onto this because I know that’s right and I’m going to hold onto this and may be killed for it because I don’t really know what else to do. It’s really simple but nice. It’s not stupid but it’s simple. Stupid, that’s like you’re going to the Oscars.”

After seeing the film at Sundance I knew I wanted to get on the ground floor with Dunsworth. When I asked her for an interview, she didn’t even turn me over to a publicist. She just gave me her number so we could coordinate in Park City. Easiest interview I’ve ever set up. We met on Main Street and one of my colleagues even asked, “Who was that pretty girl you were interviewing today?” Oh, you’ll find out. You’ll find out.

Q: When you got the script for Hobo with a Shotgun, were you like, “This is the movie I HAVE to do?”

MD: I absolutely was. It’s really my dream character. One of my favorite movies is True Romance and Alabama Worley in that, I always thought I would love to be her, she’s so cool, she’s so awesome. This is pretty much like my version of Alabama Worley.

Q: I’m happy to see that the tattoo on your chest is real. What is the story behind it?

MD: It’s for my uncle who passed away. It’s his initials and the year he was born. P-D, those are Boggle letters. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the game Boggle, shake up the letters and make words. I’m big fan. It’s a whole Dunsworth thing. We play Scrabble and Boggle all the time.

Q: And it works for the character.

MD: It does, eh? Also when something happens with my neck, as you know, they had to put a piece over it so it was actually drawn on in some of those scenes. The woman did an incredible job drawing it on. I couldn’t even tell the difference.

Q: How did you feel about Abby’s wardrobe?

MD: I loved it. Funny story actually, my sister was head wardrobe. That yellow sweater that I wear, I hated at first. And I thought I don’t want to wear yellow, I hate yellow, but it really grew on me and I actually own one of them now.

Q: Did you feel hot wearing fishnets?

MD: Not bad. It was pretty freezing outside. I was wearing the tiniest dress so when I was running along in some of the scenes, it felt like it was coming up and you could see some unsightly things.

Q: What was the toughest action for you to do?

MD: Probably just having molasses, because in our fake blood there was molasses, all over me for like 12 hours straight. There was one scene when I was lying down and I had ants crawling on me, so that was kind of tough. And surprisingly, I found just the conversation, the straight stuff was much harder to play than the crazy intense bloody screaming gore stuff.

Q: Will you be game to do horror conventions?

MD: Yeah. Yeah, I would love to.

Q: What’s been your contact with the fans so far?

MD: Well, someone asked me for my autograph the other night for the first time. They’ve been really great. They’re all really stoked. I had a little guy come up to me and ask to take a picture with me and when he put his arm around me, his hand was shaking. I thought wow, I’m usually the nervous one, right? So it was neat.

If the recent Ted Williams fiasco taught us anything, it’s that people are fascinated by hobos. And it’s easy to see why. After all, they’re a perplexing bunch. What drove these vagabonds to a life on the street? How do they manage to survive? Do they know they smell like urine? Could it happen to me?

Perhaps this fascination explains the buzz around the new film, Hobo with a Shotgun. Based on the Grindhouse trailer of the same name, the film tells the story of a homeless man who becomes a gun wielding vigilante hellbent on saving the very society that abandoned him. People love an underdog story, and there’s no bigger underdog than a hob fighting his way to the top one shell at a time.

But the film’s titular hobo is far from the first. From Hollywood’s earliest days, down and out characters found their way to the silver screen. Here are 9 other hobos you might recognize (sans shotguns).

George and Lennie – Of Mice and Men (1992)

The term hobo has become synonymous with words like “homeless” and “bum.” But that wasn’t always the case. Back in the early 20th century, a hobo was a poor migrant worker who went from place to place seeking work. This stood in sharp contrast to a bum or a beggar, who would rather take a hand out than make an honest living. So as a shout out to all the real hobos out there, I’ve included George and Lennie, the two famous hobos from Of Mice and Men. I’m keeping it real.

The Little Tramp – City Lights (1931)

One of the earliest and most beloved cinematic characters is Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp. Widely considered the most iconic character of the silent film era, the Tramp appeared in numerous shorts and features. Audiences could easily relate to a man on the fringe of society who managed to maintain his dignity and good humor despite overwhelming odds. He was also sympathetic because unlike most tramps, Chaplin’s character didn’t tend to get high on crack cocaine and urinate in apartment lobbies.

Goddard Bolt – Life Stinks (1991)

Chaplin wasn’t the only comedic genius to take interest in a homeless character. Mel Brooks also took up the theme with his 1991 film, Life Stinks. However, unlike The Tramp, Brooks played Goddard Bolt, a wealthy CEO who agrees to go homeless for 30 days in order to win a bet. As you’d expect, Bolt gets more than he bargained for, and realizes that life on the streets is far worse than he had imagined. But as you wouldn’t expect, he somehow avoids getting beaten to death by his fellow vagrants.

Bum – UHF (1989)

As long as we’re dealing with comedic geniuses like Brooks and Chaplin, I think I should throw Weird Al Yankovic into the mix. While the homeless character from his 1989 film UHF might not have much going for him in the name department (he’s credited as “Bum”), he’s certainly a key element to the plot. Plus, unlike most hobos, when this bum asks for change, he’s only trying to break a dollar.

Billy Ray Valentine – Trading Places (1983)

Can a down and out homeless man be successfully integrated into high society? Clearly not. Just ask Ted Williams. But Hollywood disagrees. For example, in Trading Places, two millionaires (Duke and Duke) decide to put the nature vs. nurture debate to the test by framing another millionaire, reducing him to vagrancy, and then replacing him with a hobo named Billy Ray Valentine. As it turns out, life as a street hustler is not that different from a life in high finance.

Jerry Baskin – Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986)

When hobo Jerry Baskin decides to end his life, he heads for the closest swimming pool he can find and tries to drown himself. However, the home’s wealthy owner saves the vagrant, and decides to let Jerry stay at the house until he can get back on his feet. I forget how it ends, but I assume Jerry rapes and murders the wealthy man’s family, and then wears their skin as a suit.

Ratso Rizzo/Joe Buck – Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Contrary to what the previous films on this list may have led you to believe, being a hobo isn’t all shits and giggles. In fact, if Midnight Cowboy is to be believed, it’s got a lot more to do with having gay sex for money and dying a slow, painful death. Who knew?

Parry – The Fisher King (1991)

What I took away from The Fisher King is that if you’re going to be homeless, you might as well have some fun with it. That’s what Parry does. Instead of facing the real world, he pretends to be a gallant knight fighting dragons and storming castles. Some people would call him a paranoid schizophrenic, but those people simply lack imagination!

Chris and Christopher Gardner – The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

In The Pursuit of Happyness, Will and Jaden Smith play a real-life father and son who survive by living in a subway while trying to make ends meet. While I was happy that the characters found a happy ending, from time to time, I still find myself wishing that both Will and Jaden Smith were actually homeless.

Honorable Mention -”The Simpsons” (Various Hobos)
Through the years, “The Simpsons” has featured many a hobo. But we think this clip does a nice job representing them all.

Hobo with a Shotgun is exactly the kind of movie I want out of cinema. Take a high concept and just do the hell out of it. It opens with ‘70s style credits, including the copyright date under the title and a credit for Technicolor. A beautiful score introduces Hobo’s (Rutger Hauer) ride into “Scum Town” (some of its residents even call it “F*** Town.”) Scum Town is even more of a surreal world than The Warriors, with looting and fighting in the streets, graffiti everywhere. It looks big.

The villains roll into town led by The Drake (Brian Downey), all in white suits and even a white car with gull wing doors. Their creative murders include human manhole covers and torturing people with amusement park rides. Is that even a spoiler? How could you possibly imagine that until you see it?

Hobo just wants to buy a lawnmower and it’s legitimately emotional. Of course, he makes the more awesome choice instead. He brings Drake’s son Slick (Gregory Smith) into the cops but they’re corrupt too. The hero gets brutalized like the best of them, and cleans up the open wounds with a few dabs of whiskey to resume the fight.

You get your montage of Hobo blasting scumbags with a shotgun and it’s artfully done. Sometimes you only see the body flying through the shot to make it more visually interesting. The weaponry escalates with creative homemade combos, on armored warriors who use harpoons on land, and vertically. The film even maims its heroes and then uses the wounds as weapons.

The plot gets way more complicated than the title suggests. Drake turn the town against Hobo, so he has to team up with Ally (Molly Dunsworth), a prostitute he saved from Slick. They’re on the run, hiding and the tables keep turning. At one point Hobo has to use the shotgun to demand medical attention, so it’s multipurpose.

This movie breaks the rules of taste and strikes that delicate balance. Slick kills children in a way you won’t believe, and graphically too. Then Hobo encourages Ally to become a teacher and you really do care about Abby.

The dialogue is like Aaron Sorkin wrote an action movie. The newspaper headline announcing Hobo’s rage is brilliant. Hobo is articulate and eloquent without being preachy. One-liners make reference to Mother Teresa, and they really work to make it make sense. I had to write this one down: “I’m gonna wash this blood off with your blood.” Oh, and Hobo actually says the words “Hobo with a shotgun” in Hobo with a Shotgun!

The supporting cast overdoes it, and not in the self-referential way. I think they just go big to go big. The editing doesn’t always flow. Director/editor Jason Eisener always cuts to the gore, even if it doesn’t quite flow. Low angles are overused, just like real ‘70s movies overused the zoom lens.

Hobo with a Shotgun delivers the extreme fun it promises and it can excuse those flaws as tone. So here it is, the first great movie of Sundance: Hobo with a Shotgun.

Renaissance man Rob Zombie has signed on to write and direct Lords of Salem, Deadline is reporting. Based on the title alone, I’m assuming it’s a 17th Century period piece about a group of noblemen, and not a film involving a demonic 300-year old coven of witches set in contemporary Salem, MA.

"What excited me most was Jason saying, you can have total control over the script, casting and final cut,” Zombie told me. “I said I’m in.”

Really, What excited me most is when I found out they were making Hobo with a Shotgun into a full-length feature. But to each his own, I guess.

Shooting is set to begin next year.

Machete is opening in theaters this weekend, but another Grindhouse-inspired film, Hobo with a Shotgun, is making a splash with the release of its first full-length trailer.

Like Machete, Hobo with a Shotgun started out as nothing more than a spoof-trailer. But unlike Machete and a few other memorable trailers, Hobo with a Shotgun wasn’t made by a well-known director with studio backing. It was created on a shoestring budget by a guy working in a comic-book shop. And to everyone’s surprise, it kicked just as much ass, if not more so, than its big-budget counterparts.

The fact that we’re witnessing a trailer for a movie that started out as a trailer has everyone talking about the concept of meta-film. Personally, I think Hobo with a Shotgun should be referred to as an omega-film, since from the looks of it, it’s the be-all and end-all of modern cinema. But I don’t want to over sell it. (/Film)

Watch a NSFW hobo use a shotgun after the jump…

I’ve been working on the script with my co-writer, Jeff Rendell, who plays the pilgrim in the trailer. And it’s me imitating Jeff’s voice [for the narration]. But Jeff has been working. I said that his deal is he has to work on the script while I’m promoting The Last Exorcism, and as soon as I’m done in mid-September he’s going to fly to California, we’re going to sit down, and bang out the script.

I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that most of these trailers are being turned into features. Hollywood is already scraping the bottom of the barrel with adaptations of friggen boardgames. Thanksgiving looks like Citizen Kane in comparison. (Cinema Blend)

Earlier this year, fans of the original Hobo with a Shotgun trailer wept with joy as production began on a full-length feature starring Rutger Hauer as the titular hobo.

Although the film owes its increased popularity to online buzz, the internet is a fickle mistress. With thriving online communities such as Sierra Online and Prodigy and a never-ending supply of cat videos, your typical web surfer has the attention span of a Prodigy subscriber watching cat videos.

But the people behind Hobo with a Shotgun understand these shifting web dynamics. As such, they’re constantly creating new content to keep our interests piqued. That’s why they’ve released two new teaser videos for fans to enjoy.

Truth be told, neither one of these videos make me that excited, but it’s way too early to start bitching. Besides, as long as the movie has both a hobo and a shotgun (not necessarily in that order) I’ll be going to see it. (DreadCentral)

Check out the two new Hobo with a Shotgun videos after the jump.

The Rookie

Breaking News

I was surprised when Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse trailer Machete was given the big screen treatment, because Rodriguez is known to just say things. So color me super-secret-double-omega-very surprised at the news Rutger Hauer is to star in a feature length version of Hobo With a Shotgun.

In 2007, SXSW held a contest which invited filmmakers to make cheap crap to go along with Grindhouse. Hobo With a Shotgun was by far the best of the bunch and Jason Eisener‘s fake trailer was attached to Canadian prints of the film. Filming on the feature version begins tomorrow with Rutger starring as the titular hobo. That’s great casting as Hauer is no stranger to doling out justice or looking kinda like a hobo. Though Busey. Busey would have been a casting coup. (AICN)

Check out the original Hobo trailer after the jump…