Eli Roth preps telenovela spoof

Hollywood horror director Eli Roth has told TBI he plans to make a English-language version of Ataque al Corazon (Attack the Heart), the telenovela project he starred in last year.

The online novela was actually a spoof and part of the promotion for Aftershock director Nicolas Lopez’s Chilean movie Que Pena Tu Familia. The schlocky medical drama was the show that the characters of that movie watch.

Roth, who has made movies including Hostel and Grindhouse, starred in the project as Dr. Zacarias.

He told TBI that he now plans to shoot an English-language version. There is no broadcaster involved, but he will shoot it this summer he said and shop the pilot afterwards.

Roth was at MIPTV to promote Hemlock Grove (pictured above), the Gaumont-produced and distributed horror series for Netflix. The series is based on the Brian McGreevy book about the murder of a young girl and how two of the chief suspects, one a werewolf, set out to find her killer.

Roth said he was inspired by movies including An American Werewolf in London and Neil Jordan’s The Company of Wolves. More contemporary werewolf films were less of a reference point and Roth said he was keen to capture the transformation process on screen.

He said: “In Twilight someone goes behind a tree and comes out a werewolf. I wanted to show what happens when they go behind that tree.”