Sixteen years after director Eli Roth contributed the faux slasher trailer Thanksgiving to the Robert Rodriguez / Quentin Tarantino double feature Grindhouse, a feature expansion of that trailer is now, finally, in production. We’ve been hoping that the film would be ready in time to reach theatres this November, and today Deadline has confirmed that Thanksgiving will indeed be playing on the big screen just in time for the titular holiday this year. TriStar Pictures and Spyglass Media Group are giving the film a theatrical release on November 17, 2023 – the Friday before this Thanksgiving.
Roth has been wanting to make a feature version of Thanksgiving ever since he put together the faux trailer. 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.
The film stars Addison Rae (He’s All That), Jalen Thomas Brooks (Walker), Nell Verlaque (Big Shot), Milo Manheim (Z-O-M-B-I-E-S), 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), Jenna Warren (The Young Arsonists), and Patrick Dempsey (Grey’s Anatomy). Character details are being kept under wraps, but we do know that Patrick Dempsey is playing the town sheriff.
Other films set to reach theatres on November 17 include Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls Band Together, and an expansion of Focus Features’ The Holdovers.
Are you glad to hear that Thanksgiving will be in theatres this November? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.