Quentin Tarantino's Improbable 'Bastards'

Wednesday

09Jul2008

Quentin Tarantino's Improbable 'Bastards'

Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 1:10PM

There is something about all this that doesn't wash with me - actually, none of it seems to - but I'll lay it out for you the way I heard it: Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood reports that Quentin Tarantino is shopping his script for Inglorious Bastards to four of the big studios - Universal, Warner, Paramount, and Sony. It is also being reported that Tarantino wants Brad Pitt to star. From various sources, there is talk that Bastards will begin shooting in October will a 2009 Cannes premiere.

I'm calling bullshit.

Here's why: Three weeks ago, Tarantino was talking about how the script was getting so massive it would be two films. Now, suddenly, that project is just ready to go? It'll be shooting in three months, finished in nine? If there's one thing Quentin Tarantino has not been over the past 15 years, it's prolific. It takes him forever to write, it takes him a while to shoot. To suddenly wake up this summer and want to work at Spielberg's pace doesn't make sense. Tarantino spent nearly a year filming Kill Bill and an astonishing four months on Death Proof. Where the hell did that time go, exactly? You tell me how he's going to crank out, in six months, a war movie so sprawling it has to be split in half. Even if he only shoots the first half (which, if we're using the Kill Bill model, makes no sense).

Assuming for the moment this script is ready, that still doesn't mean any studio is going to push it into production in October. That's a lot to line up in very little time, and the odds are against four multi-billion dollar corporations putting their Summer 2009 plans on hold to squeeze in meetings for Tarantino's last-minute war movie. The economics simply aren't there.Of course, since there are also reports that QT is working with the Weinsteins and no major studios are involved, maybe none of that matters; the confusion on this point, though, doesn't exactly indicate that we're getting the complete story.

As for the Brad Pitt discussion, I remember when Bill was supposed to be played by Warren Beatty. What happened? Tarantino's pre-production happened. Let's also consider that Pitt is working with the notoriously deliberate Terrence Malick on Tree of Life, and let's also remember that he would essentially spend his summer there and then work with Tarantino for several months without seeing much of his newborn twins. Did I mention he's already scheduled to film The Fighter for Darren Aronofsky in October? Aronofsky doesn't exactly make movies in 21 days, either. Also, that causes a logistics problem since The Fighter is filming this fall in America and QT wants to shoot Bastards in Europe.

Here's the other thing there: Paramount is distributing The Fighter, which means they wouldn't let Brad Pitt do one film to sideswipe the other, the one that's been penciled in for nearly a year. So count Paramount out of this sweepstakes if Brad Pitt is going to star. Also, since Brad Pitt was threatened with a lawsuit by Universal for bailing on State of Play last year, I doubt very much that he wants to go down that road again.

Brad Pitt doesn't need to work. He works on what he wants when he wants. Speaking of that, he also has other films in production or pre-production at the moment, so the likelihood that he'll drop everything to be in two war movies for Tarantino is not that strong, in my opinion.

Could all of these things line up? Sure, I suppose they could. I think the financing and the shooting schedule are tough, but with Harvey Weinstein on board as a producer, things could get done in an unconventional way. The Brad Pitt storyline is the one I really don't buy.

I think it's Tarantino getting his name back in the news, and well done. But I don't think any of this will really stand up. Even if the film gets made at the end of the year, is Cannes a viable option next May?

Colin Boyd |

Permalink | in

Brad Pitt,

Casting Couch,

Inglorious Bastards,

QT,

War Movies |

Print Article |

Email Article |

2 Comments |

Reader Comments (2)

I thought I heard something about a QT directed Vega Brothers movie coming down the pipeline. Any word on that?

Wednesday, July 9, 2008 |

Will

I agree with everything you said, Tarantino will probably end up premiering it at Cannes 2010 instead.

Sunday, July 13, 2008 |

John

Post a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »

Author:

Author Email (optional):

Author URL (optional):

Post:

↓ | ↑

Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>