ROB ZOMBIE Says His Next Film Project 'Won't Be A Horror Movie'

Bill DeYoung of TCPalm.com recently conducted an exclusive interview with ROB ZOMBIE. The question-and-answer session follows:

TCPalm.com: Roger Ebert called "The Devil's Rejects" "nauseating" and "a gaudy vomitorium of a movie." Is that the sort of comment that makes you think, "Mission accomplished?"

Rob Zombie: "I don't know — as long as it's positive, I appreciate it."

TCPalm.com: With the success of the movie, are you thinking now of giving up music?

Rob Zombie: "I'm definitely going to make another album and do another tour, but I don't know how much more after that. I mean, I really want to make films. And the thing is, films just take so long. Once you sign on and start a project, it's easily going to take up two years of your life. If not more. So you really can't keep disappearing for years and years at a time and expect to maintain both careers. And you can be making movies when you're 70."

TCPalm.com: I understand you're a big fan of Westerns. What are your favorites?

Rob Zombie: "I really like John Ford and Howard Hawks. And John Wayne was always my favorite. And I really love all the Italian stuff, all the Sergio Leone stuff and some of the more obscure Italian things."

TCPalm.com: Do you think knowing that about you would surprise your horror fans?

Rob Zombie: "I think that everything I've done has had obvious influences coming in from all over the place. It was never about one thing. But a lot of the influences might have been lost on people. People are usually wrong — the main type of things that people think I like are things that I have no interest in whatsoever."

TCPalm.com: Such as?

Rob Zombie: "Well, I love horror movies but I don't really like crappy gore movies, on any level. I just find them boring and I won't even watch 'em. Everyone thinks that's all I like, and I don't even watch them at all, like 'Friday the 13th' and its 900 sequels."
TCPalm.com: Are you thinking, down the line, about moving into mainstream films? Is "Rob Zombie's Cinderella Man" possible?

Rob Zombie: "Well, I already made these films, so the next thing will be something totally different. 'Mainstream' has always been a hard balance, even with my music. Even though it sells like a mainstream act and you can sell millions and millions of copies, it doesn't have mainstream trappings around it."

"So it'll be the same battle I've had with music — having a cult-level mentality on a mainstream audience. 'The Devil's Rejects' is not a tiny little movie that came out on one screen or went direct to video. It's the type of movie that people don't think you're going to make and release into multiplexes across the country. I've always had that battle."

TCPalm.com: There's something very subversive about that. It must be satisfying.

Rob Zombie: "Well, not on that level. I just think everything's become so clean and sanitized and boring. It didn't use to be like that. I mean, even with mainstream movies, you didn't watch 'The Godfather' or 'Taxi Driver' and think, 'God, these are so clean and sanitized.'"

TCPalm.com: Are you thinking about your next film project?

Rob Zombie: "It won't be a horror movie. I don't want to do that next, because I don't want to get pigeonholed. Once you get locked into a box, and people think that's what you do, then you're kinda screwed. I want to do what I want to do, and that's the best way to go about it. It'll be something totally different."

TCPalm.com: What would you do if a big studio gave you $50 million and said "Go make us a movie?"

Rob Zombie: "I don't want to make movies that I don't have control over. 'The Devil's Rejects' was a big enough hit that I could start chasing projects like that down easily. And probably get 'em. But I don't want to make weird movies, and then just become like every other guy making 'Green Acres — The Movie'. Then you're like, 'What happened?'"