Thanksgiving: Eli Roth’s long-awaited slasher is now filming!

Last Updated on April 13, 2023

Yesterday, we learned that the cast of director Eli Roth’s long-awaited slasher Thanksgiving has been rounded out with Gina Gershon (Bound), comedian Tim Dillon (who was in a TV show called Thanksgiving), Rick Hoffman (Hostel), Gabriel Davenport (Mistletoe Time Machine), Tomaso Sanelli (Titans), and Jenna Warren (The Young Arsonists) joining previously announced cast members Addison Rae (He’s All That), Jalen Thomas Brooks (Walker), Nell Verlaque (Big Shot), Milo Manheim (Z-O-M-B-I-E-S), and Patrick Dempsey (Grey’s Anatomy). Thanksgiving recently secured a worldwide distribution deal with TriStar Pictures, which is part of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, and now the official Sony Pictures Twitter account has announced that filming of the slasher is finally underway!

The start of production on Thanksgiving is a day Roth and many horror fans have been looking forward to for sixteen years. Roth has been wanting to make a feature version of Thanksgiving ever since he put together the faux trailer for the Robert Rodriguez / Quentin Tarantino double feature Grindhouse, which was released back in 2007. He even wrote the screenplay with Jeff Rendell (who played the homicidal pilgrim in the trailer) a dozen years ago. Now it’s finally happening, thanks to Spyglass Media stepping 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 and Rendell are producing the film with Roger Birnbaum. Spyglass chairman and CEO Gary Barber and president of production Peter Oillataguerre serve as executive producers alongside Kate Harrison and Greg Denny of Cream Productions Inc. Oillataguerre and SVP Production & Development Chris Stone are overseeing the project for Spyglass while Caellum Allan and Kelseigh Coombs will oversee for TriStar.

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. Character details are being kept under wraps, but we do know that Patrick Dempsey is playing the sheriff in the film.

Are you excited to hear that Thanksgiving is filming? Let us know by leaving a comment below. I’m very happy this movie is finally happening.