Rob Zombie Talks New Film ‘Lords Of Salem’ And Album Plans

Rob Zombie fans have a lot to look forward to in the next year or so. Not only is he gearing up to shoot his next feature film 'Lords of Salem', but he is also making the preparations for a new album as well.

Rob Zombie's film career has taken off quite a bit after his writing/directorial debut; 2003's 'House of 1000 Corpses'. Since then he has gone on to direct four of his original screenplays including the animated 'The Haunted World of El Superbeasto', the reboot of the Halloween franchise, and it's subsequent sequel. That hasn't stopped him from recording and touring as a performer though, Zombie has also released two albums during this busy period; 2006's 'Educated Horses' and 2010's 'Hellbilly Deluxe 2: Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls and the Systematic Dehumanization of Cool'. Not bad for a guy who started as a production assistant on 'Pee Wee's Playhouse'.

Rob shows no signs of slowing down with his new original script 'Lords of Salem' already in pre-production. If you're more into his music, don't worry. He and John5 are already plotting the follow-up to Hellbilly Deluxe 2. Zombie told Billboard:

"It will probably be the best record we've done in a long time. After I broke away from the music for a while and came back when John joined, it's been like this weird rebuilding process. I feel like this year we've really kind of brought the band back to where it needs to be, so I really feel like, even though we haven't done anything yet, the next record is going to be a special one...I used to really conceptualize albums far in advance, It wasn't like, 'Go write a bunch of songs...' We would really plan things out in advance, and that's sort of what we're doing now. So I'm excited."

Zombie is going out on tour this summer and will also join Slayer for the 11 date 'Hell on Earth' tour. Once all the shows are finished, Rob begins work on his film Lords of Salem. The film is about innocent people burned as part of the infamous Salem witch trials that come back for revenge.  Zombie said of the new film:

"I'm very excited about this one, it's a very different film. It's more of a slow, psychological burn as opposed to a physically violent kind of movie...We're in early pre-production. It's a very effects-heavy movie so the effects department had to start much earlier than they have on my other films. They've been working for a month or so now, building and working on things. Once I finish the tour with Slayer, then we'll go into full-blown pre-production with everything. The difference with film as opposed to the other films I've done, the producers on this are the guys who did Paranormal Activity. They have a different company and they run it a different way. I've been working on this movie for a while in different ways. Usually, you're not working at all and the studio goes, "Okay, green light! We need it done by this time" and you're in complete madness. Whereas this time, I've already location-scouted many times so I have a lot of locations. It's a more drawn out process which is good because you get to dig deeper into the project. From the moment Halloween II started to when it was in theaters, it was a period of about seven months. That's complete madness. You're just racing like maniac every single day to get it done. It's nice to have a little more time to reflect on what you're trying to accomplish. We'll start shooting at the end of the summer."

Let's hope that's true, I liked all of Zombie's films before that mess of a sequel 'Halloween 2'. You can catch Rob Zombie on tour along with Slayer July 22nd at the DTE. In fact you can score front row tickets if you are the lucky winner of the Ultimate Ticket 2011. BTW, today (5/20) is your last chance to get qualified and the winner will be announced @ 4pm.