Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is taking a walk on the wild side as it welcomes auteurfilmmaker and legendary rocker Rob Zombie as the host of the network's newest weekly movie showcase, TCM Underground. The late-night franchise, which will feature off-the-wall movies chosen and introduced by Zombie, is set to launch in October.

"TCM Underground will serve as home to some of the truly visionary cult films that have been made over the past century, from stylish horror movies to offbeat black comedies," said Tom Karsch, executive vice president and general manager for TCM. "We are proud to have a talent like Rob Zombie hosting this showcase, which is certain to broaden TCM's appeal beyond our loyal core audience."

Among the movies set to be featured in the TCM Underground are Suzuki Seijun's stylish Yakuza flick Tokyo Drifter, horror master George Romero's The Crazies, Ed Wood's Bride Of The Monster and Francis Coppola's creepy Dementia 13, as well as Leonard Castle's offbeat The Honeymoon Killers, the story of which also serves as the basis for the new thriller Lonely Hearts, starring John Travolta, James Gandolfini, Salma Hayek, Jared Leto and Laura Dern.

Zombie has made a name for himself challenging audiences by stretching the boundaries of film, music and publishing. He recently took film to a new level with his critically acclaimed House of 1000 Corpses and its high-octane follow-up The Devil\'s Rejects, and he is now working on his next film project, the animated horror film The Haunted World of Superbeasto starring Academy Award nominee Paul Giamatti, slated for release later this year.

As the longest active artist on Geffen Records and the most prolific Geffen artist when it comes to Gold and Platinum discs, Zombie has sold in excess of fifteen million records worldwide. This past March, his new album Educated Horses entered the billboard charts at #5. Zombie is also a seasoned video director, with more than 25 videos to his credit. In 1995, he won an MTV Music Video Award for "More Human Than Human," becoming the first self- directed artist to win such an award.

Turner Classic Movies, currently seen in more than 70 million homes, is a 24-hour cable network from Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a TimeWarner company. TCM presents the greatest motion pictures of all time from the largest film library in the world, the combined Time Warner and Turner film libraries, from the '20s through the '90s, commercial-free and without interruption. Expanding TCM's role as a curator of movie history, the network recently launched TCMdb, the Internet's most media-rich interactive movie database.