Eli Roth Wants to Make His Shark Slaughter Doc ‘Fin’ a “Totally Obsolete Movie” - The Hollywood Reporter

Eli Roth in 2021 documentary, FIN.

Friend of the organization, Eli Roth used his platform to talk with The Hollywood Reporter all about his 2021 documentary FIN, advocacy follow up from the film and the progress still on the table for sharks. It is extremely important for Hollywood to become familiar with the overfishing of sharks and valuing them alive, sharks undoubtably hold A-list power in the entertainment industry and it's time to pay it back.

“You’ve described this project as the “scariest movie you’ve ever made.” Did you bring your craft and knowledge as a horror filmmaker to bear on this project and, if so, how?

I didn’t want it to look spooky or scary. But, you know, it starts with a baseball bat scene where I’m watching someone beat a mako shark to death. And instead of vilifying the people, I follow them to their village and I talk to them and explain what the alternatives are, what’s going to happen? What do you do? How did it get this way? Why is it this bad? To really let them speak and let them tell me what they’re doing. Everyone’s just trying to make a living; I understand that. And I understand the fishermen like sport fishing, they don’t want their lives disrupted. But you know, there were sport hunters in the 1920s that were shooting elephants, also in the 1960s that were killing elephants and tigers. So, you know, habits have to change, we’ve got to change. But it’s got to come from those communities, it can’t come from a Hollywood director. I wanted to make a movie that scared people into action. You know, I used the Cannibal Holocaust theme, Riz Ortolani’s family very generously let me use it, and I paid for it out of my own pocket because we didn’t even have a budget. I wanted it to edit over the scene of the kill tournament that was outside Boston. This is my home state. And they’re wiping out these beautiful, threatened and endangered sharks. And I just, I couldn’t believe it.” — Eli Roth in The Hollywood Reporter, interviewed by Katie Kilkenny.