We were the first site to break the story to you here that Robert Rodriguez wanted to turn the “El Machete” trailer from Grindhouse into a full on, feature film. The few of you who were smart enough to get your ass out of the house and see Grindhouse know that this is a very, very good idea, but with the complete and total flop of the film in which the trailer was contained, I think most just collectively come together and assumed there was no way something that cool was going to happen now.

But Danny Trejo, Machete himself, seems to think that the poor performance of Grindhouse isn’t going to stop it from happening. IESB caught up with Trejo at the Saturn Awards, where he told them that the Weinstein Company has already greenlit an El Machete movie.

Have they lost their minds? If Grindhouse was a total failure, then there’s no way a spin-of could turn a profit right? Wrong. What everyone seems to be missing is that when Rodriguez first talked about the possibility of turning Machete into a full movie here, he was pretty clear that his intention, right form the beginning, was to do it as a direct-to-DVD side project. That means a low-budget movie made for a specific audience who will almost certainly eat it up on DVD format.

I’m opposed to direct-to-DVD anything just on general principle, but for this I’d make an exception. If direct-to-DVD were used more often for films like this, rather than junky, cash-in sequels to the American Pie movies, then direct-to-DVD might finally prove to be worth something. Keep an eye out for more on Robert Rodriguez’s potential illegal migrant work turned hired assassin movie.