Rob Zombie Dreams of Directing Wild, Wild Western

Universal Studios and Rob Zombie are currently partnering in a contest to recognize the country's best short-form horror filmmakers in the Halloween Horror Nights -- Rob Zombie Film Competition. But Zombie told Noisecreep he doesn't want to be remembered as simply a horror film director and added that his dream project would be to direct a big budget cowboy movie.

"I've always loved westerns, and I think now is a good time for the western to be reinvented in a way that the new generation can find it cool," Zombie said. "Because I think the average kid is probably bored by Westerns because they just seem slow and pokey. And a lot of the westerns that have come out lately haven't done anything to reinvent the genre."

So how would a Rob Zombie western be different than a Clint Eastwood western?

"I think the genre needs to be reinvented kind of the way Sam Peckinpah reinvented it [with movies like 'The Wild Bunch,']" Zombie said. "You'd have to do it in a way that would still keep it true to the old West but in a way that would make people go, 'Wow, I never thought of a western that way.'"

Zombie is especially interested in exploring the western genre because he views it as one of the most cliché, inaccurate movie forms in the history of Hollywood.

"I still have this series of Time Life books of the old West that I got when I was a little kid, and when you look at the actual pictures, they're so different than how that era is ever portrayed," Zombie said. "There are always lots of cool ways to make it different, it's just that these days Hollywood seems more intersted in churning out these dry costume dramas. I'd love to take a shot at directing something like that."

Before he gets that opportunity, of course, Zombie -- who directed the horror flicks 'House of 1,000 Corpses,' 'The Devil's Rejects' and 'Rob Zombie's Halloween' and 'Halloween 2' -- will choose the winner of the aforementioned Halloween Horror Nights contest. The winner will have his/her film shown on Chiller TV and receive a posting on SyFy.com, a $1,000 cash prize and a trip for two to the opening night of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. Contest entries will be accepted from July 7 through Aug. 14 and prospective filmmakers are invited to submit short films from 90 seconds to three minutes in length on DVD. More information can be found at the Hallowen Horror Nights website.