The film and television gods sure do have a sense of humor, don’t they? While the THR report doesn’t indicate exactly what character that Paul Giamatti will be playing in this “Hostel” revival series, it does mention that it will be a “key role” for a series that, frankly, has quite a bit of room for reinterpretation from a more modern perspective. Funny enough, however, Giamatti almost found himself getting his hands bloody in the original “Hostel” film in 2005, which centered on a trio of horny college kids trekking through Europe who find themselves caught in a series of gory predicaments upon entering the wrong Slovakian establishment. Incredibly, THR dug up an old Entertainment Weekly interview where Giamatti noted that he first ran into Eli Roth during production of the first “Hostel” film. As he explained at the time:
“Eli was shooting ‘Hostel’ in Prague and I was shooting ‘The Illusionist’ and I met him. We talked about me actually killing somebody in that movie but it never panned out.”
Almost two decades later, the two artists are making this reunion happen with what should be a much meatier role this time around. There’s no word on when this series will actually come to fruition or, if/when it does, which platform it will actually end up on. But with Roth’s success on “Thanksgiving” (which has since led to confirmation of a planned sequel), there’s a good chance that this revisit to the world of “Hostel” will pan out sometime soon. Stay tuned to /Film for more updates.