“Machete? I don’t need no stinkin’ machete,” says Danny Trejo in Green Ghost and the Masters of the Stone. Trejo is an action icon and has been starring in films and television for decades now, making the Machete/The Treasure of the Sierra Madre hybrid reference a well-manufactured cut. “There was a machete there, and we just did it. I used to love that line. ‘Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!”’
Trejo plays Master Gin, a high-skilled fighter with superpowers and a drinking habit, in Green Ghost and the Masters of the Stone. Rounding out the cast are Charlie Clark, Elpidia Carrillo (Predator, Predator 2), Sofia Pernas (Blood & Treasure, Age of the Dragons), Kuno Becker (Goal), Renee Victor (Snowpiercer), Jesse Garcia (Narcos), and MMA fighter Marko Zaror. It’s directed by Michael D. Olmos, who co-wrote with Clark and Brian Douglas.
Green Ghost and the Masters of the Stone takes place in a Texas border town. Charlie, a car salesman who goes by the name of "Green Ghost" at night for Lucha Libre wrestling, is encountered by assailants seeking an unworldly emerald. He soon becomes aware that he possesses superpowers and is part of a secret warrior “triad of light” along with childhood friends. Together, they must protect humanity from the embodiment of the Mayan apocalypse but first, Charlie will need to be taught how to fight by Master Gin.
Green Ghost and the Masters of the Stone was released theatrically in Texas on April 29, 2022, and will become available digitally on June 28.
Danny Trejo in Green Ghost and the Masters of the Stone
“I got the script and thought it was funny. I’ve worked with the cast before, Marko is a good friend — he makes the stuff in The Matrix look like kids play — and it was a fun movie. And I love when at the end, I’m the hero,” joked Trejo. “Charlie Clark is kind of bumbling at the beginning and then ends up an unbelievable hero. It carries a message of believing in yourself and family.”
Trejo and Clark share plenty of screen time in Green Ghost as they train and eventually end up facing the ultimate evil together. “As a writer, Clark wrote a great script and as an actor, he’s a giver. I like people that will give you something to work with. He’s always a team player and asks, ‘How can we make this better?’ It was a lot of fun to work with him, and it’s like the guy doesn’t know he’s not Mexican [laughing]… he’s a real humanitarian. He loves the culture and helping his communities, and I like people like that.”
Working with Director Michael D. Olmos
Trejo also had nice words to say about working with Olmos. “He has a good sense of humor, and I like the fact that if I said a line wrong, I would look at him, and he would say, ‘Okay, you’re drunk.’”
“It was like I could wear him how I wanted as long as the jest of what I was saying came out. That part was easy for me, and the whole movie was kind of a gift of love, because we were all getting together, and everybody was getting along… I like to say a labor of love. I love movies where everybody loves what they’re doing. They’re not jilted by Hollywood, and they’re not divas. They’re just kind of like, ‘I’m in love with this movie.’ I love what I do, and it makes it a lot of fun to work with people like that.”
Green Ghost and the Masters of the Stone comes to us from Gravitas Ventures and is a production of Mutt Productions and Zaror Entertainment. Danny Trejo has several additional movies set to release, including Peter Pan, Land of Forever, Season of Rage, and The Street Avenger. For fans of his work in Machete and Machete Kills, Machete Kills in Space has recently been announced.