UPDATED: Quentin Tarantino Shopping Inglorious Bastards To Studios. Brad Pitt In Talks To Star. Plus, Slashfilm Debate!
UPDATED 07/09/08:QT is still keeping his sights on an opening at Cannes next May!!!! Inglorious Bastards begins shooting in October.According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Weinsteins are co-producing the film and looking to team with another studio due to the film’s “accelerated production schedule.” Dude!UPDATED 07/08/08: Tarantino is reportedly now in talks withBrad Pittto star in his WWII-Spaghetti Western blowout,Inglorious Bastards, according toNikki Finke. Pitt previously starred as the stonerFloydinTrue Romance, a QT script.
Before the update a few /Film readers speculated in the comments that Tarantino was going outsideThe Weinstein Co.to other studios in order to land a pricey cast of A-listers, the kind of Dream Team that’s been rumored for years. Pitt is one step in that direction.
SLASHFILM DEBATE: If you could only seeoneof the two during your lifetime and you would have the option to view the entire film RIGHT NOW: would you chooseInglorious BastardsorThe Dark Knight? (Peter choseTDKand he’s already seen it! Whoa. I chooseInglorious Bastards. And ifTDKis better thanKill Bill, I’ll eat a shoe on /filmcast. Stay tuned.)
With a sea of Internetters joining the bring-it-on parade that isInglorious BastardsIRL,Quentin Tarantinois now shopping his finished script around town toWarner Bros.,Universal,ParamountandSony. The news arrives today viaNikki Finke, and she’s quick to point out that one studio is missing from the list:The Weinstein Co.
Before anyone signals a hungry death knell,Harvey Weinsteinis reportedly producing the film(s) withLawrence Bender(cool), but if true, TWC loses its blue-chip auteur to the competition, the iconic talent who was a money-luring cornerstone in the company’s aggressive formation. All of QT’s films dating back toReservoir Dogs(andFour Roomseven) on throughDeath Proofhave carried the TWC/Miramax bumper. Sniffle. With other mavericks of a generation like Robert Rodriguez(Barbarella) and Kevin Smith (Red State) taking their projects elsewhere as of late—albeit amicably—QT’s departure will be seen as yet another sign of money troubles and newly restrained creative risk at TWC. As Finke speculates,Grindhouse’s financial blunder aside, the company’s investors are probably not psyched.
The exclusion of TWC as a financial backer worries me a bit. The Weinsteins offered QT all the room he needed to put his vision on screen time and time again, down to obsessive minutiae. A new studio could prove problematic after filming onIBhas started, given the expected epic scope of the project and, well, QT. I mean,it’s QT. On the flip-side, some feel thatInglorious Bastardsis a hard sell and a risk, but I disagree, especially after Pitt’s possible involvement leaked today.Kill Billrelied on Uma Thurman, not the biggest box office draw then or now, to carry two films back to back, and each grossed over $65 million domestically.IBwill most likely have a recognizable and buzzing ensemble cast, possibly making for one of the most macho effing movies ever created; this automatically puts it a notch above in terms of accessibility compared toKB’s cultish brew of chopsocky homage. Also: the “war films aren’t popular” theory doesn’t fly here I feel.
