Machete: second only to The Expendables?

Robert Rodriguez’s Machete continues to ramp up its staggering cast, making it and The Expendables the double bill from heaven for 2010...

Quite honestly? It feels like we're being spoilt right now. It's little secret to regular readers of Den Of Geek that we're just a teeny weeny bit excited about Sylvester Stallone's action movie epic (and we say that, er, without seeing it) The Expendables, which right up until this moment in time had the most unrivalled cast of any movie currently in production.

But then Machete toddled along. If you're not familiar with Machete, it started life as one of the supposedly spoof trailers attached to the front of Grindhouse. In the wake of Grindhouse, of course, there was debate and discussion about just how much we'd have liked to have seen the trailered films (more than Grindhouse in some cases, as it turned out), and we're about to get our wish.

Under the stewardship of co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis, work has begun on the feature-length version of Machete, starring Danny Trejo in the lead role. As it turns out, Machete appears to be the reason that Trejo didn't take up Sylvester Stallone's offer to join The Expendables team.

Trejo, though, isn't alone, and the low-budget Machete has attracted a high-calibre cast. Jason Statham's mere presence gets us to put a down-payment on a ticket for many films, and he's duly lining up for duty. As is Mickey Rourke (and both Statham and Rourke are Expendables too), Jessica Alba, Robert De Niro (!), Lindsay Lohan, Jeff Fahey, Don Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson, Cheech Marin and - yes! - Steven Seagal.

All of which leaves us spectacularly excited, and wondering if The Expendables and Machete are like some dream double bill played out in our minds that suddenly came true. Both are due out in 2010 (although we doubt Machete will be ready come the April release date for The Expendables), and both are templates for what casting directors should be looking to make happen.

Just to whet your appetite further, here's the Grindhouse trailer for Machete. Watch it, weep, and tell us you don't want to watch that right now...