The macabre masterpiece Cannibal Holocaust by Ruggero Deodato, in which a small group of reporters go to the Amazon in search of the last remaining cannibal tribe, was a key inspiration for the Eli Roth's return to film directing.
The next film from the Hostel director called The Green Inferno has now rounded up Daryl Sabara (John Carter), Kirby Bliss Blanton (Project X) and Aftershock thesps Lorenza Izzo and Ariel Levy.
The group plays a naive band of student activists who journey from New York to stage a protest in the jungles of Peru about deforestation, but instead encounter a tribe of cannibals.
The Peru-set pic, Roth is directing from a script he co-wrote with Guillermo Amoedo (Aftershock) also stars Aaron Burns, Magda Apanowicz and singer-actress Sky Ferreria.
Production on Green Inferno which marks Roth's first return to the director's chair since 2007s Hostel: Part II is due to start next month in Peru before moving to Santiago, Chile.
Roth recently spoke about getting ready to film in the Amazon:
The location that we found is truly spectacular. It's so far up the Amazon, no one has ever shot there. The last person anywhere near there was Werner Herzog for Aguirre, the Wrath of God. We said, ‘Can we shoot here?' and talked to them, and our producers said ‘We have to explain to them what a movie is. They've never seen a television. So we brought a generator and set up a television. I thought they were going to show them E.T. or The Wizard of Oz, but they showed them Cannibal Holocaust to see how much they could handle. The villagers thought it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen.
Because none of them have ever owned a camera or had any photographs of themselves and no conception of what television or movies are, they're so natural and relaxed. They're amazing. They're not even conscious of what [the camera] is doing to them. I have a whole village full of kids that are funny as hell that will have cameras all over and not even think twice about it. They don't get nervous, nothing.
