It’s been a little while now since we’ve heard from Eli Roth and what he may be up to next. While, yes, he does have that upcoming role in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, it’s been a couple of years since Roth has been at the helm of his own projects, save the faux-trailer for Thanksgiving in Grindhouse and Nation’s Pride (the movie within the movie Inglorious Basterds).

At one point it looked like Roth was going to turn Thanksgiving into a full-fledged feature, then word of mouth on that died down. Prior to that, however, there were also rumors Roth would helm a film version of Stephen King’s Cell, which was to be scripted by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood).

So far, no official movement on the latter, but the former…? Well, that may actually come to pass. The dudes over at Empire recently sat down and shot the shit with Roth and not only did Roth spill the beans on what’s going on with Thanksgiving, he spewed some info on a possible shift into the sci-fi universe with one project entitled Endangered Species:

“”There’s a science fiction movie, and I definitely wanna make Thanksgiving. I want to do a sci-fi movie, like, a $60m movie – something in that budget range – where I can really do lots of mass destruction and really destroy lots of shit!”

I’m down with that, but did he write it? What’s it about exactly? Who’s the endangered species? Humans? Aliens? WTF?

That’s about as far as the details went on that project, but as far as Thanksgiving goes Roth offered the following:

“But I want to tack on three weeks at the end of it – like, 18 days. The way I did Nation’s Pride [the film-within-a-film from Inglourious Basterds], that’s how I want to shoot Thanksgiving. I just want to go, go, go. Get as much footage, and as many kills as possible, and not be self-conscious. Because when you’re moving at that speed, you’re not thinking, you’re just feeling and you’re going on instinct. And that’s where the best stuff comes from. There’s an energy to that Grindhouse trailer for Thanksgiving that, for me caught the spirit of the movie. And I was like, ‘What if I did this for three weeks?’ No pretensions. Just, ‘Fuck it. Let’s make a fifth movie, do it fast, bang it out and make it great.’ I mean, still take it seriously, as a real movie, but just do it in 18 says and see what the hell happens when I really push myself.”

Love to see it myself, but if you’ve been following Roth’s career trajectory since Cabin Fever you’re well aware his name’s been attached to a million and one projects at one time or another, only to see them slip back into development hell.

Hopefully, Roth can follow though with his promise on this one as an ultra-low-budget feature, as I’m guessing the Weinsteins won’t be financing another Grindhouse double-bill after the first one laid an egg at the box office.

Stay tuned…