‘Hostel’ TV Series in the Works With Paul Giamatti, Eli Roth
Paul Giamatti has signed on to star in a television adaptation of Eli Roth’s horror franchise “Hostel.”
The project is in development at Fifth Season, the studio behind “Severance,” and does not yet have a distributor attached. Roth is set to direct and write with original franchise producer Chris Briggs. The two of them will also executive produce alongside “Hostel” alum Mike Fleiss.
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“Hostel,” which premiered in theaters in 2005 and spawned two sequels, followed American tourists who are convinced by a stranger to travel from Barcelona to Slovakia, where they are then taken captive by an underground organization that kidnaps people for rich clients to torture and kill.
The series is envisioned as a “modern adaptation” and “reinvention” of the low-budget horror franchise, the first installment of which collected $82 million atop a $4.8 million budget. The less lucrative sequel, 2007’s “Hostel: Part II,” still raked in more than $35 million against a $10.2 million budget. A third “Hostel” movie, without Roth’s involvement, got a direct-to-DVD release in 2011.
Giamatti, fresh off his Golden Globe win for “The Holdovers,” told Variety on the awards circuit that he wanted to pursue more horror, telling reporter Marc Malkin that his favorite horror movie is “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.”
Giamatti, whose other credits include “Billions,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “Too Big to Fail” and “Sideways,” is repped by UTA, Kipperman Management and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.
Roth’s recent nightmares include the first-ever live-action VR series, “The Faceless Lady,” which was released by Meta, as well as his 2023 horror “Thanksgiving,” which currently has a sequel in the works. He also directed the video game adaptation “Borderlands” starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Jamie Lee Curtis, which will hit theaters Aug. 9.
The Hollywood Reporter first broke the development news.
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