Danny Trejo and Electra Avellan at the Machete Premiere

Danny Trejo and Electra Avellan on the red carpet at the Los Angeles premiere of Machete held at The Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles, California on August 25th, 2010.

Machete is an upcoming action-exploitation film co-written, produced, and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis. The film is an expansion of a fake trailer that was released in Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s 2007 film, Grindhouse. The film continues the same style of Grindhouse, which includes using the same B movie or exploitation style and footage. The film stars Danny Trejo in his first lead role as the title character. Trejo also starred as a character named Machete in the Spy Kids franchise, which Rodriguez directed. However, the last names of the characters are different, therefore they are not intended to be in the same universe and are not the same character. Cheech Marin and Jeff Fahey return to portray their characters from the original trailer, while Michelle Rodriguez, Steven Seagal, Lindsay Lohan, Don Johnson, Jessica Alba, and Robert De Niro filmed scenes for the film during the fall of 2009.

Photo: Juan Rico/Fame Pictures