Robert Rodriguez’s Machete now has a release date. I’m still not sure I’m ready to believe it’s actually happening. It’s based on one of the fake trailers from Grindhouse, a movie which was widely considered a failure, a failure which The Weinstein Company at the time blamed almost entirely (and unfairly) on Robert Rodriguez. I guess that’s why Machete’s at Fox.

But even Fox isn’t ready to throw this out there as a big, summer tentpole. At one point it was planned as a direct-to-dvd feature but Rodriguez found a way to push the envelope and turn it into a theatrical release. Now Fox is releasing Machete on September 3rd, over Labor Day weekend, long after the Summer movie season fever has died down.

Releasing Machete on September 3rd puts it up against a Christina Ricci comedy called Born to be a Star and a George Clooney indie. Not that it really matters, Machete doesn’t seem like the kind of movie destined to be number one. If Rodriguez has done his job, Machete will make its money as a cult classic which people watch and share and spread around over time. An R-rated movie about a Mexican day laborer turned assassin just isn’t mainstream, even with Robert De Niro and Jessica Alba. I wouldn't want it any other way.