Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving casts Patrick Dempsey as the sheriff

Sixteen years after Eli Roth created the faux trailer Thanksgiving for the Robert Rodriguez / Quentin Tarantino double feature Grindhouse, and a dozen years after he wrote the screenplay for a feature version of the concept with Jeff Rendell (who played the homicidal pilgrim in the trailer), Thanksgiving is finally set to start filming in Toronto next month… and The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Patrick Dempsey of Grey’s Anatomy and Scream 3 is in talks to play the sheriff in the film. A role that was played by Michael Biehn in the faux trailer.

Thanksgiving is finally happening because Spyglass Media stepped in to provide the funding. Roth jumped at the chance to get the movie made, even though it meant having Deadpool‘s Tim Miller take over as director on the reshoots for his video game adaptation Borderlands.

Roth is producing the film with Roger Birnbaum.

If you’ve watched the Thanksgiving trailer, you have a good idea of what this slasher movie is going to be about. The Hollywood Reporter says plot details are on the thin side although it concerns a slasher who comes to small Massachusetts town with the intention of “creating a Thanksgiving carving board out of the town’s inhabitants,” per sources. Which lines up with what we’ve seen in the faux trailer.

It might be tough for Roth to live up to the faux trailer and the nonexistent version of Thanksgiving we’ve been imagining for sixteen years, but I’m glad he’s taking on the challenge and I can’t wait to see what the actual movie is going to be like. With the Grindhouse faux trailers for Thanksgiving and Machete having become actual movies, now we just need Edgar Wright to make Don’t and Rob Zombie to make Werewolf Women of the SS. A faux trailer Jason Eisener made called Hobo with a Shotgun won an international contest to be shown with Grindhouse in some parts of Canada, and that idea became a feature film as well.

Are you glad Thanksgiving is finally happening? What do you think of Patrick Dempsey being the first cast member? Share your thoughts on this project by leaving a comment below.