The anticipation of being in the same room as Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth at SXSW 2010 Film was worth the very long wait in line, but within 20 minutes word had spread that Tarantino and Roth were no shows.

They were both supposed to accompany other notable directors Ti West (The House of the Devil), Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland), Matt Reeves (Cloverfield).

Many people jumped out of line before they could learn that Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror/The Faculty) and Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers/The Descent) were going to be the replacements on the panel. When people found out Rodriguez was on the panel the room quickly filled up! Especially since he just debuted the preview for his upcoming movie Predators.

Rodriguez talked about how he wrote the script for a rebooted version about 15 years ago, right before he directed Desperado. Fox had called him and said they wanted to use his script to bring back the Predator franchise.

The rest of the panel gave some great insight on issues they faced with making their movies. The topic of the Motion Picture Association came up right away. Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) said his goal was to make sure his movie received an R rating.  He “put in more f#@s,” so that seventeen year old kids that get to go to R movies are excited because they hear one more f#@k.

The directors also talked of the lack of what for decades was always in American horror movies, nudity. Evey director on stage agreed that they all don’t try to make it a necessary point, even though there has been some nudity in their films. It’s almost like people expect it and you don’t want people expecting things in a good horror movie!

Overall it was quite fun to hear the things directors go through and experience live and in person, rather than being relegated to DVD extras.