Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez met in 1992 at a filmmaker panel about violence in movies. The makers of the blood-soaked "Reservoir Dogs" and "El Mariachi" had plenty to talk about, and quickly became friends.

"We really love each other. It's like he's my brother," Tarantino, manic as ever, gushed last weekend at the annual Comic-Con convention. "It's just really kinda precious. We're really kinda precious about it!"

A few years later, the two film geeks got together to make "From Dusk Till Dawn." Vampire heads exploded, pop culture references were made, appendages got hacked off. And a good time was had by all, most obviously by George Clooney, tongue firmly in cheek in his first major movie role.

Rodriguez went on to rock his work life gently between two gunplay-heavy Mexico-set follow-ups to "El Mariachi" -- "Desperado" and "Once Upon a Time In Mexico" -- and the family-friendly "Spy Kids" trilogy.

Tarantino went on, apparently, to do whatever the heck he pleased; after 1997's "Jackie Brown" it was six years before his "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" slashed its way into theaters.

Who will get the higher body count? Tarantino and Rodriguez are each making 75-minute exploitation films for a double feature due out next year. (AP Photo/Sandy Huffaker)

What got the two back together? "Dragstrip Girl" and "Rock All Night."

As Rodriguez tells it, he kept a poster of the 1957 double bill -- starring Fay Spain and Dick Miller, respectively -- for inspiration in a room at his home-slash-studio in Austin, Tex. He was hanging out at Tarantino's pad to watch Tarantino's "guest director" scene from "Sin City" when he noticed that Tarantino owned the same poster.

Rodriguez suggested they make a double feature together, and they began reminiscing about the cheesily thrilling exploitation movies of the '60s and '70s.

"Grind House" was born.

The movie, due out April 6, 2007, is actually two 75-minute films -- Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" zombie flick and Tarantino's slasher movie "Death Proof" -- separated by fake trailers for other exploitation movies (Tarantino's plan for one: "Cow Girls in Sweden").

Gritty, throwback-style posters for each film were distributed at Comic-Con, a nod to the teasing posters of grindhouses -- the dingy, sleazy theaters that showed low-budget exploitation movies.

"One of the things about (exploitation) movies, they always had the greatest posters," Tarantino said. "But the movies often-times, because they were so cheap, couldn't deliver on the poster. We're going to make two sleazy grindhouse movies that will deliver on the poster."

Rodriguez showed moments of a fake trailer for "Machete" and several minutes of viscerally-thrilling footage from his half of "Grind House," which includes Tarantino as a rapist and stars Freddy Rodriguez and Rose McGowan.

When we first see them together, McGowan is an amputee with a peg leg --- "Look at me! I have no leg," she says -- hopping about and off-balance while Rodriguez climbs walls and stabs zombies in a hospital hallway.

A moment later, she's laying down and Rodriguez approaches gently.

"I made you something," he murmurs. He then abruptly snaps off her peg leg and replaces it with a machine gun. A machine gun. On her leg.

Moments later, Rodriguez is driving a motorcycle and McGowan is on the back, gun-leg pointed out. She opens fire on a pack of zombies, their heads explode ... and what more do you need to know, really?

"If there's amputee fetishists out there, I think this is the movie for them," McGowan said.

Tarantino promised even more imaginative approaches to death and destruction in his half, which will feature Kurt Russell as the killer.

Filming continues on Rodriguez's movie, and Tarantino will begin shooting his half in several weeks at Rodriguez's Troublemaker Studios.

___

asap staff reporter Ryan Pearson once sat down and watched DVDs of "El Mariachi," "Desperado" and "Once Upon A Time In Mexico" all in one day. He only slightly regrets it.

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.