Eli Roth will begin production on Hostel 2 in September in Prague, Cesky Krumlov, Karlovy Vary and other locations around the Czech Republic.
The director told reporters at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival the film financing was a negative pick-up by Columbia Screen Gems and Lionsgate. Lionsgate will distribute the film with Sony in the United States, Roth said, beginning with a January or February 2007 release. Columbia will distribute the film internationally.
Roth said the budget for Hostel 2 was “slightly higher” than that for the previous film, but that he wanted the sequel to resemble closely the original in style.
“I want it to feel like the movie is going to pick up on the next cut, as if you could watch the two movies back-to-back and it would be a three-hour movie,” he said. “There will be some new things thrown in there but it has to look and feel like that movie.”
Roth said that Hostel 2, which focus on three female characters, will be darker than the original. “The first Hostel is a journey into hell that starts off fun,” he said. “Part 2 is going to start off scary and stay creepy all the way through.”
Roth planned to shoot most of the film at various locations around the Czech Republic, with some scenes shot at Barrandov Studios. “We’re also going to shoot some other places, like Rome, and kind of expand just a little bit it outside. And if they let me back into Slovakia, maybe Slovakia.”
The first Hostel, although filmed in the Czech Republic, was set in neighbouring Slovakia. Many Slovaks, including the minister for culture, have taken exception to the way their country was portrayed in the film.
Roth also confirmed plans to direct Cell, an adaptation of the Stephen King best-seller, for the Weinstein Company, with production beginning in spring 2007.