Eli Roth - Biography

Last Editor: marie-noel				Eli Roth Biography -   Name : Eli Roth Birth name : Eli Raphael Roth Nickname : Gorilka Date of birth : April 18, 1972 Place of birth : Newton, Mass., U.S. Profession : Film director, film producer, screenwriter, actor, animator Years active : 1990—present Height : 6' (1.83 m)

Eli Roth Trivia -

He won a Student Academy Award in 1995 for his N.Y.U. thesis film Restaurant Dogs. He spent six years researching a project for director David Lynch and composer Angelo Badalamenti that will be written for Broadway. He got his idea for Cabin Fever (2002) when he was in Iceland and contracted a case of a flesh-eating disease. The now infamous shaving-legs scene in the bathtub is based on when Roth shaved his face and layers of skin came off while having the disease. He was the inspiration for the character Eli, the aspiring porn director, in the film The Girl Next Door (2004). One of the writers was friends with Cabin Fever (2002) editor Ryan Folsey, and spent time in the editing room, secretly writing down everything Roth was saying. Roth found out about this when several actors he knew auditioned for the film, and told him there was a character named Eli who spoke exactly like him. Roth confirmed this with the writer, who was promptly kicked out of the editing room. He is friends with director Chloe , aka Chloe Nichole, who directed the Cabin Fever X-rated parody Sex Fever (2003) (V). Chloe had visited the Cabin Fever (2002) set during shooting, and then directed the sexy spoof without telling Roth. In Sex Fever (2003) (V), Chloe spoofed Roth's character Justin, making her director's cameo as a lost hiker, just as Roth did in Cabin Fever (2002). Roth was flattered that she made the film, but was disappointed he was not invited to visit her set in return. He suffers from psoriasis, a genetic, non-contagious skin disorder which can have crippling effects. When Roth suffered his first attack at age 22, his skin was cracked and bleeding so badly that he could not walk or wear clothes. He based many of the events in Cabin Fever (2002) on his own skin-curdling experiences. He paid for his student films by working as an on-line sex operator for Penthouse magazine, back when only doctors and scientists were on the Internet. Subscribers paid $30 an hour to have sex with Roth and his N.Y.U. friends, thinking they were gorgeous Penthouse models. Roth claims that these experiences inspire many of the characters he writes today. Quentin Tarantino calls him "the future of horror," and praised his work in the May 2004 issue of Premiere magazine. Hfe is a huge fan of Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen. While filming Cabin Fever (2002), Roth played the Olsen Twins's film Holiday in the Sun (2001) (V) on a continuous loop in a screening room, to give the cast and crew "artistic inspiration." When he worked as a production assistant for Howard Stern on the set of Private Parts (1997), he worked the late shift from about 11pm to 7am. During this time he spent rewriting and reworking the Cabin Fever (2002) script because he says it was "problematic at best.". He is brother of Adam J. Roth and Gabriel Roth He is son of Sheldon Roth and Cora Roth He shared nearly all the profits from the enormously successful _Cabin Fever (2002)_ with his cast and crew members, who took very little pay up front in order to get the film made. Does incredible voice impressions, and will often entertain his cast and crew during long camera setups with imitations of everyone working on his film. He was fired by director Martin Brest on Meet Joe Black (1998) for being an "untalented stand-in." Roth later worked on the film as a production assistant, but was hidden from the director, put in the basement of the studio, where he turned the air conditioning on and off between takes. Although his films are frequently advertised as such, he reportedly does not personally take the "film by" or "an Eli Roth film" credit because he believes that people should be able to distinguish your work from the film itself, not the opening titles or poster. He believes filmmaking is a collaborative process, and feels the credit disrespects the people who brought their own creativity to the project. He owns an Icelandic horse named Bara, who he keeps on the horse farm in Selfoss, Iceland, where he lived when he was 19. His father Sheldon Roth is a world renowned psychiatrist/psychoanalyst and a professor at the Harvard University medical school. His mother Cora Roth is a painter who shows her work at the O.K. Harris gallery in New York City. He was originally approached to be the voice of the computer trivia game "You Don't Know Jack," but turned it down to write Cabin Fever (2002). He spends every summer at Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, New York. Roth claims that the beautiful old hotel, built in 1869, is a continued source of inspiration for scary ideas. Other guests of the mountain house include Roth's favorite writer Stephen King. He cannot stand the sight of real blood, saying it makes him sick to his stomach. Movie blood, however, has no effect on him. He is an expert on the relatively unknown scientist Nikola Tesla. Roth owns copies of every known letter Tesla ever wrote, including rare letters to Tesla's family and to financiers when his projects fell apart. Roth shares similar obsessive compulsive disorders that Tesla had, and has said he feels a strange connection to the forgotten scientist. He is deathly allergic to cats, and cannot be in the same house as them. He is member of the unofficial Splat Pack, a term coined by film historian Alan Jones in Total Film magazine for the modern wave of directors making brutally violent horror films. The other Splat Pack members are Alexandre Aja, Darren Lynn Bousman, Neil Marshall, Greg Mclean, James Wan, Leigh Whannell and Rob Zombie. The total combined production budget of Eli Roth's first two films is $6 million dollars. The total worldwide theatrical gross of Eli Roth's first two films is well over $100 million dollars. With DVD sales and rentals, the total revenue generated by Eli Roth's first two films is over $200 million dollars. (Source: boxofficemojo.com) He was voted Most Fit Director in the June/July 2006 issue of Men's Fitness magazine, which ranked the "25 Fittest Guys" in various professions. He was voted by fans into the Fangoria Magazine Hall of Fame in June 2006 after directing only two films, the fastest of any director ever to receive that honor. Is red/brown and blue/black color blind in low light. Writes all of his scripts longhand, a practice he started on the advice of Quentin Tarantino. Roth writes in a handwriting so illegible that only he can read it in case he loses his notebook. Is considered one of the most profitable directors working in film today. Both of his first films earned over five times their production cost at the box office opening weekend. Neither film boasted major stars, proving that Roth's name guarantees a built in audience. (Source: Boxofficemojo.com). One of his favorite movies is The Wicker Man (1973) . Gave an expert commentary on Troma's DVD release of The Incredible Torture Show (AKA Blood Sucking Freaks). Formed production company, Raw Nerve, with film directors Scott Spiegel and Boaz Yakin, which focuses on producing horror films. Suffers from asthma, and is very allergic to cigarettes. Roth does not allow smoking anywhere near his sets, and if an an actor smokes in a scene Roth must be at a monitor far away from the set. Has never lost money on a film. Cabin Fever (2002) recouped 15 times its budget theatrically, Hostel (2005) recouped 20 times its budget theatrically, and Hostel: Part II (2007) , Roth's biggest budget film to date, recouped triple its budget theatrically. Put on 35 pounds of muscle for the role of Donny Donowitz, The Bear Jew in Inglourious Basterds (2009). Roth also learned to cut hair for the role from producer Pilar Savone 's father Umberto at his salon, Umberto, in Beverly Hills.

Eli Roth Detailed Biography -

Eli Raphael Roth was born on  April 18, 1972. He is an American film director, producer and writer. He established himself as a brand name director after his first film Cabin Fever, with name-above-the-title billing on all of his films since. Roth has done so without the support of mainstream press, and mainly uses the internet to promote his films and connect with his fans. Roth is considered the pioneer member of a group of film makers recently dubbed the Splat Pack (a play on the term Rat Pack, referring to a group of 1950's–1960's entertainers), because of their close ties to one another and their dedication to the horror genre. Roth was born in Newton, Massachusetts to Cora, a painter, and Dr. Sheldon Roth, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, as well as a professor at Harvard University. He had a Jewish upbringing. Roth began shooting films at the age of eight after watching Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). He made over 50 short films with his brothers Adam and Gabe before graduating at Newton South High School and then attending film school at New York University, from which he graduated in 1994. Actress Camryn Manheim gave Roth one of his first jobs in Hollywood, putting him on as an extra on The Practice when he first moved to Los Angeles. Roth would stay in Manheim's dressing room working on his scripts while she filmed the show. By the age of 20, Roth was the development head for producer Frederick Zollo, eventually leaving to devote himself to writing full-time. To earn his living, Roth did budgets and schedules for films such as A Price Above Rubies and Illuminata. In 1995, Roth co-wrote Cabin Fever with his roommate and friend from NYU Randy Pearlstein. Much of the script was written while Roth was working as a production assistant for Howard Stern's movie Private Parts; Stern remembered and congratulated Roth on his January 11, 2006 radio show. The movie was filmed in 2001 on a shoestring budget of 1.5 million (raised with private investors) and was sold at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival for $3.5 million dollars after a massive bidding war between eight studios. It was the biggest sale of the festival that year. Cabin Fever made $30,553,394 theatrically worldwide. It was the highest grossing film for Lionsgate that year. Lionsgate used the theatrical success of Cabin Fever to raise the money to purchase Artisan Entertainment. Lionsgate's stock rose from $1.98 a share at the time Cabin Fever was purchased at the Toronto Film Festival to nearly $6 a share after "Cabin Fever" was released theatrically. (Source: Lionsgate website financial reports.) Roth's second feature film, Hostel, was made on a budget of a little more than $4 million, in 2005. It opened to #1 at the box office in January of 2006, taking in $20 million dollars opening weekend, and knocking out The Chronicles of Narnia from the #1 spot. It went on to gross $80 million worldwide in box office, and over $180 million worldwide on DVD. In April of 2006, on Eli Roth's birthday, Hostel opened on DVD at #1, again outselling The Chronicles of Narnia, which had opened at the #1 sales slot only one week prior. The movie takes place in Slovakia, where two college students visit a hostel, where they think that all of their fantasies will come true. Instead, they find an international syndicate with the express purpose of torturing and killing backpackers for sexual pleasure. The film pushed the boundaries of realistic violence farther than any mainstream American film had before that point. The film was voted the #1 scariest movie moment on the Bravo TV special 100 Scariest Movie Moments: Even Scarier Moments. Roth reportedly turned down numerous studio directing jobs to make Hostel. Roth took a directing salary of only $10,000 on Hostel in order to keep the budget as low as possible, so there would be no limitations on the violence. Roth shot the film as an NC-17 movie, but the film passed through the ratings board with an R. In January 2006, film critic David Edelstein in New York Magazine credited Roth with creating the horror sub-genre 'torture porn,' or 'gorno,' using excessive violence to excite audiences like a sexual act. While Roth loved the article for its insight appreciation of the filmmaking and political undertones of his films, many critics shortly thereafter began using the term to describe horror as a sub-genre of porn.[citation needed] Roth has publicly spoken out against these critics (not Edelstein), saying it exemplifies how critics are always quick to reduce horror to a sub-class of pornography, and that many horror films are much smarter and better made than critics give them credit for, which, ironically, was Edelstein's very point.[citation needed] In 2007, Roth directed the fake trailer segment Thanksgiving for Grindhouse, in addition to acting in Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino's segment of the film. In recent interviews, Roth has vehemently expressed interest in expanding Thanksgiving into a feature-length motion picture, along with Edgar Wright - who would expand his trailer Don't - for a Grindhouse sequel. Roth is working on other film projects, including an adaptation of the Stephen King novel Cell. He also talked about doing a film called Trailer Trash; a film made of fake trailers; according to an appearance on G4. While Hostel Part II did not open to the same box office as the first Hostel, the production cost was a mere $10 million dollars, which was recouped by the first week in release. However, with marketing costs factored in to the equation, and the studio take usually only 55% of the box office total, it is unlikely that the film will turn a profit in its theatrical run. Prior to "Hostel II", all of Roth's films were considered extremely profitable, making him one of the most bankable directors working in Hollywood. He's also one of the few directors whose films are sold with his name above the title, and has been a guest on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," "The Howard Stern Show," and "Late Night With Conan O'Brien." Roth has proven to be an intelligent, and refreshingly candid commentator on his movies, and the horror genre in general. A good guide to understanding his perspective on his work in the horror genre can be gained through listening to his radio interviews of 4/26/2006 and 6/13/07 on The Treatment radio show with KCRW's critic Elvis_Mitchell. Both 30-minute interviews are freely available as podcasts from KCRW. Roth is an accomplished animator, having written, produced, directed, animated and voiced two series: Chowdaheads (1999) and The Rotten Fruit (2000). Chowdaheads was co-written and co-voiced with friend Noah Belson, and was made with traditional hand-drawn animation. The Rotten Fruit, which Roth again co-wrote and co-voiced with Belson, was made with stop-motion animation done with foam puppets. Roth participated in a DVD audio commentary for Blood Sucking Freaks. The DVD is one of the highest selling DVDs for Troma. Roth often makes uncredited cameos in Troma films.