A Hostel TV series is happening with Paul Giamatti set to star

Get your passports ready because Hostel is returning with director and writer Eli Roth at the helm.

According to a new report from The Hollywood Reporter, Roth is preparing to take Hostel to the small screen with a "reinvention" of the franchise suited for television. In even better news, Academy Award-nominated actor Paul Giamatti, who is currently coming off of a hot streak after his acclaimed film The Holdovers, will star, though specifics about his characters being kept under wraps.

The article also throws around a lot of buzzy terms to describe this version of Hostel, including calling it a "modern adaptation" and an "elevated thriller."

The original Hostel movies weren't exactly high-brow and, in fact, went a long way toward popularizing the term "torture porn" in the horror genre, so it'll be interesting to see what Roth comes up with to make Hostel, a movie about travelers getting tortured as part of a horrific clandestine syndicate, seem "elevated."

Premiering in 2006, the first Hostel was considered one of the most disturbing and gory movies ever, mainly thanks to the rather infamous eyeball scene. I liked the sequel, Hostel Part II (2007), starring Lauren German and Heather Matarazzo, much more than the first. German's character even survives and gets revenge on the killers who tormented her and her friends, so it would be cool if she could somehow return for the new television series.

While Roth directed and wrote the scripts for both the first and second Hostel, he didn't return for Hostel Part III, the last entry in the franchise that came out in 2011. But he's officially back for the TV version, with original producers Mike Fleiss and Chris Briggs also returning. Roth recently directed the 2023 slasher film Thanksgiving.

Funnily enough, Giamatti was originally meant to appear in the first Hostel movie, having run into Roth while he was filming in Prague. At the time, Giamatti was working on The Illusionist. He told Entertainment Weekly about plans to have him kill someone in the film, but it didn't pan out. Now it looks like Giamatti is finally getting his chance to join the Hostel universe!

The series will be produced by Fifth Season, the same studio behind Apple TV+'s hit series Severance, but no streamer or network is attached to air it yet.

Stay tuned to 1428 Elm for more details on the upcoming Hostel TV show and all things horror, and make sure to follow our Facebook page and Twitter account!