Guillermo del Toro, one of the busiest men in Hollywood, has just added another film to his plate. The director of the upcoming monster/action film Pacific Rim will co-write a movie called The Bloody Benders with Adam Robitel, who wrote the project on spec.
Those who remember the lyrics to the Eagles' classic song "Hotel California" may find this project especially interesting, since it involves a real-life Kansas hotel in which 20 guests (begin Eagles quote) "could check out any time [they] liked, but [they] could never leave." Why couldn't they leave, you ask? Because they were murdered by the Bender family, owners of the hotel back in the 1870s. Del Toro was drawn to the story because of its unique time in American history, when expansion was the name of the game and communication on the westward lines would often take weeks to make it back to civilization.
Del Toro isn't planning on directing the movie, but he'll polish up the script with Robitel before they get it into production. Deadline broke the story, and peg this as a set-up project for At The Mountains of Madness, the expansive horror thriller del Toro wanted to make with Universal and Tom Cruise before it fell apart due to concerns it would end up with an R rating. A company called Angryfilms is backing that project with del Toro, and they're also involved with The Bloody Benders. Frankly, I'm down to sit through whatever del Toro has to do in order to get At The Mountains of Madness made, because if he's able to achieve his full vision for that movie, it's going to be incredible.
Do you like the concept of The Bloody Benders? Who do you think would be a good pick to direct it?