Last night I attended the premiere of Hatchet III at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.  While I was there I got a chance to check out the film and chat with the folks involved on the red carpet.  The film itself is a fun final act to the trilogy, and though it’s more in the vein of action-horror, as opposed to the straight up slasher style of the first two, it’s a fitting (possible) end of the franchise.  While fans might have worried with Adam Green stepping down as director, director BJ McDonnell, who worked as a cameraman on the first two films, understands the tone and the characters previously established, and with Green on board as Writer/Producer Hatchet III feels right at home in the saga of Honey Island Swamp.  As a bonus, the film is loaded with Easter eggs for fans of the series, so odds are if you enjoyed the first two you’ll have a good time with this one.  While I was there I was able to talk to Adam Green, Danielle Harris, Kane Hodder, Derek Mears, Zach Galligan, Rileah Vanderbilt, Caroline Williams and Robert Pendegraff.  Hit the jump to for the see what the cast and crew had to say.

Citing strong DVD sales and an insatiable thirst for cinematic bloodshed (all right, I made that last one up…sort of), Dark Sky Films has greenlit production on a third installment of writer/director/producer Adam Green’s Hatchet franchise. According to Variety, Hatchet III (as I’m tentatively titling it) will pick up where its predecessor left off and could follow an outline cooked up by Green prior to beginning production on Hatchet II. Additionally, the report makes it seem as if there is a solid chance that Green won’t be helming the picture, citing his “trepidation about the possibility of handing the franchise to another filmmaker.”

Joining Dark Sky (who also released Ti West’s excellent 2009 horror film The House of the Devil) in producing Hatchet III is Green’s own ArieScope Pictures. Official announcements regarding Hatchet III‘s director and cast are expected in the near future. Hatchet II starred horror icons Danielle Harris, Kane Hodder, and Tony Todd and enjoyed an unrated theatrical release courtesy of AMC before being pulled from theaters prematurely.

Like the on-screen lives of so many involved with the film, the already limited theatrical run for Adam Green’s horror flick Hatchet II has ended prematurely.  Having failed to receive an “R” rating from the ultra-classified MPAA, Green and Hatchet‘s distributor Dark Sky Films miraculously received screenings for the unrated cut in over 60 AMC theaters in both the US and Canada.  As of yesterday, though, the film had been pulled from all AMC theaters without cause or explanation.

While you may or may not have been interested in checking out Hatchet II in theaters, the film’s inability to achieve an “R” rating as well as its ultimate removal from theaters is a great reminder of just how much power the MPAA wields over the motion picture industry.  To check out some quotes from Green (who wrote/directed the film), hit the jump.

Dark Sky Films has released the first teaser trailer Hatchet II, the sequel to writer/director Adam Green’s 2006 swamp-centric slasher film.  I’d estimate that roughly 85% of the 1:17 runtime is devoted to text, intercut with brief flashes of the terrible acts of Victor Crowley.  But sometimes with a scarer like this one, that’s all you need to rachet up the tension — particularly with unnerving quivering effect applied to the text.  Regardless, I’m sure that if you were a fan of Hatchet, the sequel is on your radar, in which case you should absolutely check out the trailer after the jump.