Hostel, Eli Roth’s 2006 horror film that helped popularize the so-called “torture porn” trend of the 2000s, looks to head to the small screen.
THR reports that a Hostel television series starring Paul Giamatti is in the works, with Roth set to return as a director while penning the script alongside Chris Briggs. A network or streaming platform is not yet attached.
Giamatti, whose work includes The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and The Holdovers, will apparently feature in a key role, meaning his character is apt to be spared from being dismembered in one of the show’s familiar dungeons. Well, probably.
Hostel has apparently been on Giamatti’s mind since the original film. In a 2013 interview with EW, he said, “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.”
The original movie starred Jay Hernandez and Derek Richardson as two college students who run afoul of a torture ring in Eastern Europe. Hostel was a success, earning $82 million worldwide and spawning multiple sequels, while earning its share of criticism. Some officials from Slovakia condemned the film for its depiction of their country, though Roth said at the time it was aimed at American ignorance.
We wrote at the time, “Hostel is a mixture of many of the most terrifying things about human nature and the world at large, culled from many impossible-but-true stories of human trafficking, international organized crime, and sex tourism. Relentlessly graphic and deeply disturbing, the film is sure to shock even the most hardcore horror genre fans.”
How will such a queasy experience translate to TV? Roth no doubt has some ideas. In the meantime, Hostel has the potential to join a number of other horror movies that have made the translation to television, including Chucky. It does not yet have a release date.
Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
